


Critical Novel

by maxride003



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: It's Critical Role still, Just written out, Novelization
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-06 18:36:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 33,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8764456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maxride003/pseuds/maxride003
Summary: It's the story we all know, love, and are obsessed with, in written form. Starting from Kraghammer, this follows Vox Machina through the Underdark and beyond. All of their quests, trials, ridiculous banter, their good times and bad are all within, providing yet another way to enjoy the world of Exandria.





	1. Welcome to Kraghammer

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! So this was my NaNo project, and after a bit of rewriting and tweaking, the first part is ready to be shown off. This is going to be a very long project, especially since by the end of NaNo I hadn't even gotten through the second episode, so bear with me as I try to make this as accurate as possible. All of the dialogue is straight from the show, with a few exceptions where something had to be added or tweaked to make more sense, or I just had to guess as to what someone was saying. But for the most part, it's all there and true to Critical Role. But I hope you enjoy it, and with any luck, it won't be too long before I can put up more.

Vox Machina was a decidedly odd group of adventurers in most settings, but within the dwarven city of Kraghammer, their strangeness was even more apparent.

The traveling group consisted of eight humanoids with no dwarves among them, and a large bear. A large portion of the party could have stepped into the main streets of Kraghammer with only a few curious glances thrown their way, but there were others among them whose presence made people’s heads turn and their attention shift toward the party. It wasn’t only the bear, either.

The party stood at the end of a short hallway that led down to the city’s entrance, staring out at Kraghammer itself. An enormous, underground metropolis sprawled out before them, the dark earth and shadows framing beautiful stonework, marble columns, archways, and labyrinthine bridges stretching across the vertical cityscape. The entire city was warmed by the red glow of a strange rock peppered throughout the town as a light source, not nearly bright enough to simulate daylight, but not so dim as to hinder even the sight of someone without the natural gift of low-light or dark vision.

In the center of the city was a large metal forge, its fires adding to the gentle glow permeating Kraghammer, and the city extended both up and down, a cylindrical construction built into the mountain. Sounds from the city carried and echoed through the carved space. The gentle, rhythmic clanging of metal on metal drifted up from below, conversations hung in the air from passing dwarves, and the distant sound of various gatherings of people further in the city reached the party’s ears.

Scanlan Shorthalt, one of the two gnomes that traveled with the party, pushed his way to the front and past everyone else. He was easily the flashiest of the group, and where people might overlook him due to his size, they would likely do a double take at his appearance alone. His dark hair was pulled into a ponytail and a couple curling strands hung loose, framing his face. His clothing was clearly that of an entertainer; a purple shirt with puffy sleeves, a darker purple vest with gold highlights, and striped pants that made his legs as puffy as his arms.

Stepping into the large cavern, Scanlan whistled, impressed. Also just to see if the sound would echo back. It did.

Vex’ahlia looked around, pulling at the end of her braid thoughtfully. She was a half-elf, her slightly pointed ears mostly hidden beneath her thick, black hair, and a couple blue feathers were stuck behind one ear. She wore clothing that was designed for easy movement, a blue jacket and light leather armor, bracers that both served as protection and kept her sleeves from overtaking her hands, and form fitting pants. A bow and quiver rode on her back, and she had a hand resting on the side of the armored bear, Trinket. Her loyal companion, Trinket stayed close by, occasionally letting out a curious rumble or nudging against her. The metal plates that protected his head, neck, back, and shoulders clinked gently as he moved, but he seemed unfazed by the armor’s presence.

“So Pike speaks dwarvish, right?” Vex asked, looking back around at the rest of her group and meeting the eyes of the other gnome. Despite her height, Pike Trickfoot also was hard to miss. She was very small, but wore heavy and shiny armor emblazoned with the angelic symbol of Sarenrae. A blue bandana was tied around her neck, and her blond hair was braided against her head and out of her face, tucked behind her pointed ears. A mace was threaded through a loop at her waist, and a shield was slung over her back.

Before Pike could answer, Tiberius declared, “I speak dwarvish as well.” He squared his shoulders and lifted his head proudly, his sharp teeth flashing in a quick smile. Tiberius was one of the party members that stood out the most, as he was a dragonborn with a long tail that brushed against the ground and a pair of spectacles perched on the edge of his snout. His red scales stood out distinctly against the blue robes he wore, and horns curled from the top of his head, curving up and around to point toward the back of his neck. He carried a staff in one hand, an elegant design with a smooth shaft and a crystalline top.

“Oh, good,” Vex said with a smile. It was highly likely that most dwarves they encountered would speak common, but knowing their language with be helpful regardless. Even if the inhabitants of Kraghammer didn’t speak solely dwarvish, most members of the group had found it advantageous in the past when they were able to speak with someone in their native tongue. It made people relax a bit.

Grog looked at Tiberius in surprise, which was a look that wasn’t entirely uncommon for the goliath. Along with Tiberius, he stood out the most, towering over the heads of everyone else at eight feet tall. His skin had a bluish tinge, with black markings covering his bald head and extending down to his shoulders, and much of it was visible since he was unarmored. Except for the fur-lined skull that was strapped to his shoulder and held with the same cross-strap that served as a back sheath for his greataxe, he wore only thick pants and boots. A ragged scar cut across his chest, and while it was partially obscured by the straps, it was far from hidden.

Scanlan waved a hand dismissively at Tiberius, not nearly as engrossed in the discussion as others were, and he took a couple steps away from the group to get a better look at the city.

“Fantastic,” Keyleth said, regarding Tiberius with interest. “Where did you learn that?” Keyleth was a half-elf like Vex, with long red hair that fell loosely around her shoulders and down her back, kept out of her face by a delicate golden circlet with antlers extending from the sides. A simple but elegant red and gold dress hung from her frame and brushed against the ground, and she carried a gnarled staff in one hand that looked like it had been freshly removed from a tree.

“Through books,” Tiberius said matter-of-factly, gesturing with the hand that wasn’t gripping a staff as if to encompass a collection of books that wasn’t there. He didn’t elaborate further, apparently satisfied that he’d answered the question fully. Keyleth grinned, a small laugh escaping her at his response.

“We have to go find Greyspine, don’t we?” Scanlan called, spinning on his heel to look at the rest of the group still clustered at the city’s entrance.

Though many of the party would’ve been just fine with visiting Kraghammer purely because they could, Vox Machina had arrived on business, and Scanlan’s question reminded them of that. They were seeking Lady Kima of Vord, a halfling paladin that had gone missing during a mission to investigate a growing evil within the mithril mines of Kraghammer. They had gathered that the best person to speak to about finding Kima within the mines was Nostoc Greyspine, owner of the mine. Finding him was the first step to completing their mission.

“I think before we do anything, we should find a place to sleep,” Percy suggested. As the only pure human among the group, Percy should have been one of the most unassuming members. But his long blue coat with golden trim and buttons, shiny golden glasses with the extra lenses hanging off of arms on either end, and the long rifle slung across his back weren’t common sights. His short white hair stuck up in the back, and as the only one without even low-light vision, he was still blinking and squinting and waiting for his eyes to adjust to the faint red glow of Kraghammer.

“It would be good to rest after that fight earlier,” Grog agreed, absently reaching up to touch a cut on his upper arm. Though it was mostly closed at this point and in the beginning stages of scabbing over, his skin was still darkened with dried blood, and it was far from the only injury marring the party.

“At least it’d be nice to put everything down for a while,” Percy said, gesturing to the bag of holding Grog had thrown over one shoulder and the weapons and smaller packs that other members of the party carried.

“Of course. I’ve got a lot of... _ booty _ that I’d like to stow,” Scanlan said with a teasing grin, and while Vex gave him a tired, withering glance, Grog barked out a pleased laugh.

Percy put up a hand, shaking his head as he said, “I don’t want to hear about what you mean by that, Scanlan…”

“Good way to phrase that, Scanlan,” Tiberius chimed in cheerfully while Percy let out a breath and turned away from the gnome. “Also, I’d like to check out any places where they might have enchanted libraries or whatnot.”

“Do dwarves have enchanted libraries?” Vex asked skeptically, lifting an eyebrow at Tiberius.

“Can you stick with us? You’re one of the only ones that speaks dwarvish!” Scanlan added, crossing his arms and looking about as stern as a three foot tall gnome in vibrant entertainer’s clothing could.

While Tiberius blustered out an answer to both Vex and Scanlan, which resulted in him interrupting himself a couple of times to try and get to another thought, the final member of their party spoke up for the first time since they had arrived.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself,” Vax’ildan said, speaking over the others. Twin to Vex, he had a very similar appearance to his sister - same sharp features, thin frame, black hair, and dark eyes. Where Vex kept her hair braided, Vax pulled his back in a loose ponytail, the strands blending in with the dark cloak and leathers he wore. Needing to operate with a level of stealth, his clothing was generally unassuming, and the flashiest part of his outfit were the daggers at his snake-shaped belt.

“I’m just saying, put it on the list!” Tiberius finished firmly, smacking the end of his staff on the ground for emphasis. Percy covered a smile with his hand and Scanlan nodded, apparently satisfied.

As the party’s conversation grew in volume and continued on, they received more than a few curious, wary, or disdainful looks from passing dwarves as Kraghammer’s citizens went about their business. Most appeared to be giving the group of outsiders a wide berth. The two guards flanking the archway Vox Machina had stepped through, dwarves dressed in dark crimson and bronze armor with a decorative scar carved across the front, regarded the party awkwardly, as they weren’t able to move or do anything themselves as the argument built.

Vax stepped up next to Tiberius, nudging the dragonborn and nodding at the two guards. “Tiberius, make with the dwarf talk, please,” he said. Tiberius followed his gesture, stepping up to the guards with a sharp nod.

“Um, hello, lads,” Tiberius said in dwarvish, the language rough and foreign to most of the party as it rolled off his tongue. “My associates and I were looking for a place of lodging for the night. A place of reputable...reputation…”

Pike smiled and pat Tiberius on the arm as his words trailed off and he looked perplexed by his own wording. The dwarf he spoke to turned to holler at the other in common. “Ya hear that, Jepson? They’re looking for a place to stay!”

“Aye, I heard that right,” Jepson called back, an almost taunting grin tugging at one side of his mouth. “It’s about time we had some new folk in town.” The second dwarf turned his attention to Tiberius, who had spun around to face him. “Well, if you’re looking for a place to stay, your best bet would be the pig pits.”

“That...sounds…” Tiberius said, frowning as he tried to figure out just what it sounded like.

“Is that the  _ name _ of a place?” Scanlan butt in skeptically, moving back with the rest of the group and looking at the dwarf as if he’d gone insane.

“Yes!” Jepson cried. “The pig pits.”

“Alright…” Scanlan muttered, his words drowned out by the dwarf.

“Ask for the pig pits, you’ll be shown around,” Jepson promised.

Vex crossed her arms over her chest, looking at the dwarves unimpressed. “That’s actually pig pits, isn’t it?” she asked dryly.

“I feel like we’re being hazed…” Keyleth said, looking down at the two guards suspiciously.

“What?  _ No _ , no, not at all!” Jepson insisted. His friend smiled, nodding his agreement.

“I’d actually be fine with that,” Grog said, unfazed when Vex looked around at him flatly, her expression clearly stating he was being stupid. He grinned back at her.

Ignoring his friends around him, Scanlan asked, “Which way to the pig pits, sir?”

“Pig pits are...that way,” Jepson said, leaning forward and pointing to the edge of the walkway that circled around the cavern. The twins and Percy followed his finger and stepped up toward the edge, peering down off the side. Far below, near what seemed to be a temple within the center of the city, they could see slopped mud and pens where livestock was kept for the city’s use. Vex looked unimpressed, while Vax gave Percy a disgusted look and received only a slightly amused smirk in return.

“Give him a shiny,” Grog suggested quietly, and Vex grimaced, a hand that was already dipping toward her supplies pausing at the thought. She didn’t argue, however, and after a second pulled a gold piece from a pouch tucked into a pocket inside her jacket.

Vex stepped up in front of Jepson, holding the coin between two fingers and offering it to the dwarf. “We are looking for a place to stay that  _ isn’t _ covered in mud,” she said, annoyance and frustration creeping into her tone as she stared down the dwarven guard.

Jepson eyed the gold greedily and reached out to take the piece. He leaned to the side to address Tiberius and said, “Well, it’s good to know at least one of you speaks dwarvish.” Tiberius gave him a curious look that turned faintly indignant as he realized what Jepson meant, and Percy chuckled quietly.

“Alright, now, if you’re looking for a proper place to stay,” Jepson said, turning back to Vex and pocketing the coin, “you’re going to look for the Iron Hearth Tavern. That is just to your left, about that way, no more than half a mile.” He pointed down the main, gently curving road and toward some of the buildings that were built up out of the stone. “Keep an eye out, listen for the laughter and the people who are very, very drunk. That’s your best bet.”

“Thank you, sir,” Vex said, far more amiably now that they had a real destination.

“No worries,” Jepson said.

“I like your armor, by the way,” Vex said with a wink, interrupting the dwarf as he opened his mouth to say something else. He glanced down at himself and straightened his shoulders, proudly adjusting a dark cloak that hung down his back.

“Well, thank you kindly,” he said with a smile, whatever he was going to say forgotten as the party stepped away from Kraghammer’s entrance and followed his directions toward the tavern.

Within a few minutes of walking along the platform-like pathway, they came across a large tavern and inn set amongst the surrounding buildings, an expertly carved sign above the door declaring it to be the Iron Hearth. Sound spilled out of the tavern before they even reached the door; music, laughter, cheers and shouts, arguments, conversations. It sounded busy, popular, and far preferable to the pig pits.

As the party made their way inside, the scents of stale alcohol, sweat, and wood smoke hit their nostrils. Boisterous laughter rose up from one of the tables beside the door and one of the dwarves seated there leaned back suddenly with the force of his laugh, making Keyleth side-step to avoid getting hit. Tankards were knocked together, slammed down on tables with excessive strength, or were held in the weak grasps of the drunken patrons. It was no real mystery where some of the alcohol scent came from. Scanlan wrinkled his nose in disgust, but the very atmosphere seemed to invigorate Grog, who bared his teeth in an eager grin as he stepped inside.

Tables in various states of repair ranging from “functional” to “how is that still standing” were scattered throughout the tavern, with only the central space left clear. The center of the tavern was taken up by a brawling ring, currently empty, and thirty feet across at its widest point. Grog’s eyes widened when he saw it and he cracked his knuckles eagerly, his grin growing and eyes searching for any potential victims within the crowded building.

Vox Machina’s entrance attracted some attention from the nearby dwarves, especially when Trinket shouldered his way through the door, and they paused what they were doing to stare. Vex smiled and waved her fingers at them, while Grog’s attention shifted to the curious dwarves.

“What’re you looking at?” he rumbled, his head brushing uncomfortably against the ceiling that was, while likely very tall for the dwarves of Kraghammer, still not large enough to accommodate a goliath.

“It’s not very often we catch someone with that kind of a mug on ya,” one of the dwarves said, pointing up at Grog’s scowling face. “Let me buy ya a drink. Come, sit down!”

Grog’s face lit up and he shouted, “My kind of people! See you later!” His friends watched in amusement as he readily joined the table with the dwarves, the size difference between him and his new friends almost comical.

Vex looked around for a nearby table, finding most all of them were full of dwarves. While she attempted to find somewhere for the rest of the group to sit while still being near Grog, Vax dug a small sack of gold out of his pocket, dropping it down onto a nearby table. The impact of the small bag on the wood pulled his sister’s attention and she stared at him, mouth agape in disbelief, as Vax completely ignored her and raised his voice to address the tavern as a whole.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he called out over the noise of the tavern, attracting a few more curious glances toward their group. “We are traveling from far away, we’ve just arrived from Emon. We are fascinated to see your underground city, and to celebrate the occasion, I would like to buy every dwarf in here a round! Bartender!”

Vex only stared at her brother as if he had completely lost his mind, while the tavern fell silent around them. The music and conversations halted in an instant, and all the dwarves looked around to the table, then over toward a dwarven woman behind the bar. She had a towel draped over one arm and had stopped what she was doing, looking at Vax and his cheerful grin in confusion.

The dwarven woman broke the silence, exclaiming, “Well it’s about time someone around here had some generosity! Certainly, if you’re paying up front. Drinks all around on this half-elven gentleman!”

For a moment, the tavern was filled with deafening shouts and cheers as the dwarves within heartily agreed. As soon as he could be heard again, Vax called out, “I will need your largest bowl of ale for this one here.” He clapped Grog on the shoulder and the goliath very quickly corrected him.

“Cask! Cask. Of ale. Cask,” Grog insisted, and Vax nodded, happily allowing the change.

“No worries, Adra’s got your back. Be right back,” the dwarven woman said, disappearing into a back room for a few moments. When she returned with a new cask, she began pouring drinks that were then handed off to her staff. They seemed to be entirely male barkeeps who seemed to be run a little ragged but still moving about quickly to see to the tavern’s patrons.

Scanlan moved up to the bar, climbing up onto a stool and leaning on the surface. He cleared his throat, but when it seemed like no one noticed the noise from the small gnome, he said, “Excuse me, miss.”

“Adra, aye,” the dwarf said, looking around to Scanlan and sliding a stein of ale to a nearby dwarf.

“Adra, you run a fantastic establishment -” Scanlan started.

“That’s right, I do!” Adra interjected proudly, crossing her arms and settling back on her heels comfortably.

“Thank you for welcoming us and allowing us to buy this round,” Scanlan said.

“Of course! Patrons that come in and drop coin like that are welcome anytime,” she said with a grin, glancing over at Vax, who was currently leaning against Trinket and in the middle of a conversation with his sister. From the look of things, Vex didn’t seem very pleased with her brother’s choice, and he didn’t seem to care.

“Well, thank you for your hospitality,” Scanlan said. “Might we inquire about staying here the night? Do you have an inn here at this tavern?”

Adra reached down beneath the counter and withdrew a large tome that she dropped on the counter with a solid thump. She opened it and started leafing quickly through the pages, scanning the careful lines of text within. “You know, actually, we have openings right now on the second floor,” Adra said, pointing to a spot in the book. Scanlan had no idea what it actually said, even if the book were facing him, since it seemed to be written in dwarvish. But as long as Adra knew what she was reading, that’s all that mattered.

“Several rooms or just one?” Scanlan asked, taking a quick glance around to see where the rest of the party had gotten to. He knew where Vax, Vex, Trinket, and Grog were, and everyone else seemed to have been sticking pretty close. Pike had been lifted up onto Trinket’s back. Keyleth and Percy stood off to the side, trying their best not to get in anyone’s way, and Tiberius seemed to be doing the opposite, his tail causing people to trip as he looked around with interest.

“Do you need them side by side?” Adra asked, bringing Scanlan’s attention back toward her.

He shrugged and then nodded. “That would be nice,” he admitted. “Something with a little bed for me.”

Adra looked off to one of the bar hands and called out, “Giles!” He looked her way, tired and generally disinterested, and Scanlan suspected he just wanted to go home and go to bed. “Get Stephson out of his room, move him to the third floor! Gotta open a block for our new guests.”

She gestured to Scanlan and the party at large, and Giles stared at the gnome for a moment, narrowing his eyes slightly as if quietly blaming Scanlan for making him go. “Fine, fine,” he muttered, making his way to a staircase that led up to the rooms.

“Alright, so if I can get a room for each of you, we’re looking at eight rooms separately? That would run you...about twenty-five gold pieces, does that sound alright?” Adra asked cheerfully.

“Total?” Grog asked, his voice surprising Scanlan with its closeness. He turned to see the goliath nearer than he’d expected, a tankard in one hand and the other resting protectively on a cask of ale that had been given to him.

“Twenty-five  _ total _ ,” Adra agreed. Whether it was total or separate, Vex looked physically pained with the cost, especially after Vax had just thrown his money away.

“You wanna share a room?” Vex asked Keyleth immediately.

“Yeah! Yeah, I think we...we can totally bunk up,” Keyleth said, a little taken aback by the suddenness of the question. As soon as the idea was suggested, the others worked our room arrangements amongst themselves, Grog and Scanlan declaring each other roommates, and Percy and Tiberius agreeing to share one themselves.

Vex kept track on her fingers and with a few gestures to herself, she nodded and smiled at Adra. “So that would only be, like, fifteen gold, then,” she said.

Adra visibly deflated, her shoulders slumping a few inches, but she nodded and glanced down at her book. “Alright, fair enough,” she conceded. “Five rooms it is, and fifteen gold. So how long do you expect to stay?”

“At least a few days,” Tiberius said, glancing around at the others for confirmation.

“Let’s say a week,” Scanlan said, and Tiberius nodded with a quick gesture to Scanlan, agreeing with his proposed time.

“With an indefinite hold,” Percy said over the top of them. “We are...we have business in the city.”

“Great!” Adra said. “Well how about you pay the week in advance and I’ll give you a discount?”

“Oh, I love discounts!” Tiberius said cheerfully, grinning toothily at Adra.

Vex narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at the dwarf and asked, “What kind of a discount?” Adra put up a finger and started running through the math in her head.

“Let’s say one hundred gold for the week. All five rooms,” Adra said after finishing her calculations, smiling amiably.

Vex quickly started working out herself how much a week’s stay would be normally, and before she could say anything, Vax said, “We’re pretty flush. I think we can handle that.” Vex hummed out a sound that wasn’t quite agreement but she didn’t argue.

“This doesn’t terrify me,” Percy said, looking over at Vex. The ranger finished counting things out on her hands and narrowed her eyes at Adra, pointing a finger at the dwarf, and still working through an argument against the price.

“Sounds good!” Scanlan said, at the same time Grog declared, “We’ll take it.” Vex looked a little frustrated but pulled the gold out of her pouch and practically tossed it toward Adra.

“Glorious!” Adra said, gathering the coins and stowing them away with impressive speed. She snapped the book closed and put it away, drawing out a handful of keys and a small map of the premises, where she pointed out the rooms the party had just paid for. “You’re welcome to stay all you like, ask questions. Just make sure you don’t do anything  _ stupid _ near the Carvers.”

“Like what? I do stuff like that all the time,” Tiberius asked with such sincere concern that Scanlan stifled a chuckle.

“I’m sorry, your accent is a little thick, near the…?” Vax asked before Tiberius could get his answer.

“The  _ Carvers _ ,” Adra said, drawing out the word so it could be better understood. When it was clear that still no one understood (there was a brief exchange in which they all tried and failed to repeat her), Adra let out a heavy breath, shaking her head. “Is this your first time in Kraghammer?”

“Yes,” the party said, all at roughly the same time.

“The Carvers are the guard that run this city,” Adra explained, carefully and almost as if she were speaking to a group of small children. “They’re the ones that keep the law.”

Vex’s eyes widened in realization and she made a slashing motion across her chest, blurting out, “The scar!”

“Yes! The armor, the Carvers,” Adra said, settling back and looking relieved that she’d finally been understood.

“Y’know, I’ve got one myself,” Grog said, pulling at the straps across his chest with a grin and better showing off the ragged scar that stretched across his torso. Adra reeled back at the sudden sight, while two nearby dwarves glanced over and raised their glasses with a quick cheer. It quickly turned into a scar show and tell, where the two dwarves began showing off their own marks and explaining their origins to a very interested and excited Grog.

Leaving Grog and the dwarves to their conversation, Adra said, “Alright. Well, the Carvers are sort of a, how do I put it? A military class in this city. They run a very tight ship in the streets, so just be careful.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Percy assured her. “Mostly we’re just looking for Lord Greyspine, if I recall. We have business with him.”

“Yes. Actually,” Vex said quickly, cutting Percy off, “we might have business with you if you’ve seen a halfling come through.”

Adra’s brows pulled together in thought and she put a hand up to her chin. “There was a halfling woman…” she said slowly. “But she was staying at the Firebrook Inn. On the bottom floor, for a couple weeks… There was talk about her. She was a...she got into a few fights herself. The one in the silver armor, that one?” Vex nodded, listening with keen interest. “Yeah, she was a firebrand if ever I saw one. Right up my alley, I liked that one.”

“How long ago would you say this was?” Percy asked.

“Oh, she was through for a few weeks. Haven’t seen her recently,” Adra said thoughtfully. Percy thanked her, stepping back to start making his way with some of their things to one of the rooms, when Grog turned away from his newest dwarf friends and toward Adra.

“Is there a champion of the, uh, circle...fighting ring. In the tavern?” he asked, glancing back at the brawling circle eagerly. “Is there a reigning…?” He twirled his hand vaguely in the air as the words escaped him, and the rest of the party exchanged amused glances.

“Already, Grog?” Scanlan demanded.

“Well, I have to know these things,” Grog said, staring at Adra expectantly. The dwarf sported an amused but slightly surprised look of her own.

“He has to know  _ something _ ,” Percy said quietly to Keyleth as he passed behind her on his way upstairs. She grinned at him as he walked away.

Grabbing the barrel that rested on the counter beside her, the one she had been pouring drinks from before Scanlan approached, Adra turned it to show the symbol that was branded into the wood. It read “Balgus Brewery” around the image of a large-horned ram.

“That would be Balgus, the one who supplies us with what you’re drinking,” Adra said as Grog squinted at the letters he was unable to read. “He’s the undefeated champion. But…” She looked Grog over as the goliath bared his teeth and rolled his shoulders, eager to take on the challenge. “I don’t think he’s quite right to fight at the moment.”

Adra pointed down toward the end of the bar to an old, grizzled dwarf. He had his arms crossed on the table and face pressed against them, his bushy beard shoved up around his face. His grey hair was pulled into tight braids in the back, and he was currently passed out drunk on the bar.

Grog looked at Balgus and nodded as he said, “Alright. Another time, then.” There was still a gleam to his eye as his attention shifted between Balgus and the ring, but he’d wait until his opponent could at least stand on his own.

“Save it for a rainy day,” Vax agreed, and Grog looked down at him in confusion.

“Is it raining?” he asked, glancing around.

“I don’t think they have rainy days,” Percy mused, coming up behind them without all the gear he’d left with. His comment earned him an exasperated look from Vax.

“Now, you said Greyspine,” Adra said, cutting over their conversation.

“Yes, Greyspine,” Vex said.

“We’re looking to set up a meeting,” Percy said, smiling quickly at Vax’s prolonged exasperation before he met Adra’s eyes again.

“Which Greyspine?” Adra asked, and the party exchanged glances.

“Nostroc? Nostoc?” Scanlan tried. Vex nodded.

“Nostoc Greyspine?” Adra said, getting a few more nods and sounds of agreement. “He’s definitely a business type…” She grimaced and shook her head at the mere mention of Nostoc.

“Who’s the friendlier Greyspine?” Tiberius asked.

Adra tilted her head back and forth as she thought and said after a pause, “The friendlier would probably be the head of House Greyspine.”

“Wait, how many Greyspines are there?” Keyleth asked, and Adra looked over at her in surprise, as if she had forgotten the druid was even there.

“There’s got to be several at this point… I’ve lost track. The family line’s been going for a while,” Adra said apologetically. “However! Of House Greyspine, currently Ironkeeper Gradem Greyspine is the head of this entire city. Voted in...ten years ago, actually. He’s head of the council.”

“Ironkeeper what?” Keyleth asked, trying to figure out the pronunciation past Adra’s pronounced accent.

“Gradem. Ironkeeper Gradm. G-R-A...ah, commoners,” Adra muttered. “Learn to speak the language!”

“I understood perfectly,” Tiberius assured her, and Scanlan snorted out a laugh.

Vax shook his head slowly and said, “Adra. Obviously we have no dwarves in our little party…”

“Unfortunately,” Adra agreed.

“Sorry about that,” Vax continued. “How… You’re very welcoming, and we appreciate that. How welcoming would you say the city is to outsiders? Are we going to stick out like a sore thumb?”

Adra nodded slowly, rubbing at her nose. “Probably,” she admitted, and Percy chuckled. “As long as you don’t do anything stupid, I think you’re fine. And as long as you keep the coin flowing, and as long as you stick to the upper levels. The lower levels you start to get to some of the businesses - the miners, the forges, the foundries. When you get to the business area, the guard gets heavier, and that’s where folks don’t like you poking around.”

“So the lower levels would have the mithril mines,” Scanlan said.

“ _ The _ mithril mine,” Adra corrected.

“There’s only one?” Scanlan asked.

“There’s one now. It’s, well, for quite some time now been helmed up and run by House Greyspine,” Adra said, leaning forward on the bar and shifting into a comfortable position where she stood. “The Keystone Quarry is what you’re looking for.”

“Though we’re not really interested in that,” Vax interrupted, and he was quickly backed up by his sister. “We just want to see the city. Our business is elsewhere.”

“Yeah, I would not recommend the mines. That’s, uh… Without the proper business credentials on that, you’ll end up being questioned pretty heavily,” Adra warned.

“Sounds like a dirty business anyway,” Vax said dismissively with a wave of his hand.

“You ought to stay away from those miners, Scanlan,” Grog said, poking the gnome in the shoulder to get his attention. “That’s a dirty business right there.” Scanlan grinned up at him, while Adra narrowed her eyes at Vax and opened her mouth as if to say something against his statement, but then she closed her mouth and shook her head, dropping it.

Vex mimicked Adra’s stance, leaning on the opposite side of the bar, and said, “So, Nostoc. You said that he’s kind of a…” She grunted out a small noise of displeasure and waved her hand back and forth in a so-so motion.

Adra shrugged and said, “Well, there’s a reason he’s been put in charge of the mines and the businesses like the foundries.”

“And where is he located?” Vex asked and Adra frowned.

“Well, if he’s not home, at the actual Greyspine Manor - which is a sprawling house - he’s probably down at the actual quarry itself, keeping an eye on the business there,” Adra said, arching an eyebrow and glancing around at the group.

A nearby dwarf, on the other side of Vox Machina from those that had gotten excited by Grog’s scar, looked up from his drink and said, “Ah, Greyspine? There’s been troubles round there. Friend of mine works there. Got a big, nasty scar last week.” The dwarf drew a path down his face with his finger, from the corner of his eye down to his chin. “Wasn’t even paid for his time off due to it. It’s bull _ shite _ .”

The dwarf slammed his drink down on the table, the ale within splashing up to the edge of the tankard but not overflowing to the counter. Scanlan, brows furrowed in concern, asked, “Down at the quarry?” The dwarf snorted out an agreement and nodded.

“How did your friend get this nasty cut?” Keyleth asked.

“He works there!” the dwarf said, as if she were stupid for even asking. “Said there was things pouring out of the caves. Goblins and the like.”

“Goblins?” Vex repeated in interest, while Scanlan’s eyes hardened and narrowed.

“Goblins are nothing,” the dwarf scoffed, waving a hand dismissively. “But he says there’s something other than goblins poking around there. So. Just saying. That business is in for a  _ serious _ problem if they don’t change.”

Grog’s smile grew again and he nudged Vex eagerly, practically vibrating with the idea of goblins and other unnamed creatures swarming the mines. Monsters and things meant a fight, and Grog was always ready for one of those.

Vex smiled back and pat his arm. “Does your friend ever have drinks here?” Vex asked the dwarf, gesturing to the tavern as a whole.

The dwarf wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “No. He’s been sober for two years. We’re not friends anymore.”

“Oh,” Keyleth said awkwardly, as the dwarf reached up to tug at his beard. “I’m...sorry. I think.”

The dwarf huffed out a breath and reached out to refill his drink from the cask on the bar, only to get his hand smacked by Adra. “You pay for that, he only bought one round,” she said, jabbing a finger at the dwarf, who griped and grumbled but left it alone, finishing his drink and walking out of the tavern.

“Excuse me, one thing, Adra,” Tiberius said, taking a moment to watch the dwarf leave before turning back to Adra. “Are there any mystics in this particular town that study any arcane arts?”

“Of course, what did you think, dwarves were just baseline folks who brawl each other?” Adra scoffed. Tiberius blustered out an answer made unintelligible by his stammering, and Adra smiled. “I mean, a lot of them certainly are. But what you’re looking for is House Thunderbrand. They’re the ones who, by blood, have the arcane arts in their family line. They run most of the enchantment process in the city. They also train - if you call it train, some of them call it  _ indoctrination _ . But they’re definitely the focus of all the arcane arts here in Kraghammer.”

Tiberius nodded, making note of the group, and thanked her for the information.

“Thank you, Adra,” Scanlan said. “We’ll let you get back to what you were doing, and we’ll come find you again if we have any more questions.”

“Certainly!” Adra said agreeably, righting herself and thumping her hands down on the counter. “But if you don’t mind…” She gestured for them to move, and a glance back showed a line of dwarves that had formed, eagerly and impatiently waiting to reach her and get the drinks Vax had bought them.

“Enjoy, gentlemen! Lady,” Vax called out, pointing to one of the female dwarfs he spotted and grinning as he moved out of their way.

Vox Machina shifted away from Adra and the gathering of dwarves, a task made more difficult due to the fact they had to move through the tavern with a bear, and they found another section of the bar a short ways down to regather at.

“So, fellows, what should we do?” Scanlan asked, hopping up onto an empty bar stool. From there, he was a little closer to the height of most everyone else, if still rather short. Even Pike had more of a height advantage, sitting on the back of Trinket like she was.

“Two things,” Vex said, holding up two fingers as she listed the items off. “Check out the Firebrook Inn, since that’s where Lady Kima was staying. And also I think someone should run reconnaissance on Greyspine Manor.”

The second point was said quieter, and Vex glanced around briefly to make sure none of the nearby dwarves were listening in again. Her gaze shifted to her brother pointedly, and he caught her eye and nodded. “Yes, I don’t think we should go directly to the mines and find Nostoc,” he said. “No, maybe we should enlist the help of a dwarf here in the city to  _ introduce _ us to Nostoc. I mean, we’re not trying to raise hell or bring down a thousand dwarves on us.”

“No, and there’s no sense attempting to be subtle,” Percy said.

“Though that does sound fun,” Scanlan interjected at roughly the same time, grinning.

“Everyone’s going to know why we’re here and what we’re looking for,” Percy continued as if Scanlan had never spoken, ignoring Vex’s quiet scoff and Grog’s emphatic nods of agreement in response to the gnome.

“Why don’t we get old drunky grey-beard who’s face down on the bar to do it?” Grog suggested, pointing over to Balgus, who sat in the exact same position he was in a minute ago, apparently still dead to the world.

Vex stared at Grog then to Balgus and back before she shook her head. “No, he’s very… Know what, he might be drunk enough to help us, let’s ask him,” she decided, overriding her own concerns rather quickly. “Saddle up, Grog. People seem to like you here.” She jabbed a finger at his bare chest and pointed over to Balgus. Grog looked down at her in surprise.

“Me?” Grog asked, mimicking her and pointing to himself.

“Go show him your scar,” Vex suggested.

“Take him a drink!” Keyleth added.

Grog grinned and nodded, getting the largest mug of ale that he could and making his way over to Balgus. Scanlan hopped off his stool and trailed along behind him, easily moving through the crowd in Grog’s wake as the goliath pushed past people with ease. Vax took Scanlan’s seat immediately, leaning on the bar and watching the two of them approach Balgus.

Grog set the ale down near Balgus’s sleeping form, adjusted the straps across his torso to better show off the ragged scar across his chest, leaned one elbow on the counter, and cleared his throat. The dwarf slept on, snoring into his bushy beard. Grog cleared his throat again, louder, and again got no response.

Scanlan pulled out his shawm, a shiny silver woodwind, and started playing a gentle tune that was nearly drowned out by the already present music in the tavern, as well as the sounds of the patrons and movement all around them. A faint purple glow came from the end of the instrument as he imbued the song with healing magic, and a matching glow appeared in Balgus’s torso as the music washed over him.

Only a moment after Scanlan’s music started to have an effect, Balgus shifted in his seat and frowned, grumbling into his beard. “Where’s that blasted music coming from?” he muttered, lifting his head and opening his eyes blearily as he reached out to bat at Scanlan’s shawm.

Scanlan’s music stopped abruptly and he fumbled with the shawm in his haste to put it away and keep it out of Balgus’s reach, resorting it to stowing it behind his back. “I don’t know where that was coming from,” he said innocently. Balgus blinked and pushed himself upright, stretching and staring down at Scanlan.

“Sorry. Sorry to disturb you,” Grog said, and Balgus turned his attention to the goliath who attempted to casually lean on a bar far too short for him. “Your name is of great repute around these parts.”

Balgus reached up to wipe a globule of drool from the side of his mouth, mostly managing to smear it through his beard instead of dispelling it. He braced himself on the back of his chair with one hand as he leaned forward, narrowing his eyes at Grog. “You’re bothering me nap,” he said, his words thick and faintly slurred with the remnants of his drunken state. “What you want from Balgus?”

“Oh, we were wondering if we might perchance acquire your knowledge about town. For a bit of a...search…” Grog said and Scanlan nodded, slipping his shawm back into its resting place at his belt. Grog paused a moment while Balgus stared him down, the goliath’s brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what he was saying. His expression cleared and he shrugged one shoulder, leaning forward toward Balgus eagerly as he dismissed his previous thought. “Right, I heard you were a good fighter. You look strong,” he said.

Balgus glanced between Grog and Scanlan and said, “I’ve heard the same.” He slowly removed his arm from the back of his chair, crossing both on the bar in front of him once more.

“Right,” Grog said after a brief pause, not entirely sure how to respond. “How often do you get challengers in this tavern?” A smile crept across his face and Balgus settled comfortably in his seat, grunting.

“Bout as often as I get woken up from my sleep,” he grumbled, staring at Grog pointedly. “Which is  _ never _ . Because only  _ stupid _ people do that.” Scanlan glanced up at Grog, who just stared back for a moment and then nodded to himself as a new thought came to him. His previous two attempts to engage Balgus in conversation and get him to help were entirely dismissed, replaced with the new idea.

Shifting on the bar so that Balgus could more easily see the rest of the party, the wood creaked under Grog’s weight, though he didn’t seem to notice. “Right. There’s a pretty lady over there with slightly pointy ears,” Grog said, pointing down toward where Vex and Keyleth were talking among themselves. “There’s two of them!” His raised voice caught the attention of the party, and Scanlan waved at the half-elf women. Keyleth looked confused and Vex waved back while Balgus looked from them to Grog. “They wanted to ask you a question.”

Balgus was silent a moment and then slowly shifted so he was leaning on one arm, the other reaching out to grab at the drink Grog had left nearby. He snatched it up and chugged it, slamming the empty cup down on the bar a moment later. “You got five minutes,” Balgus said, stretching his back as he sat up and rolling his shoulders. As he did so, Scanlan and Grog could see his muscles rippling beneath his tunic, and it seemed as if that was all the dwarf was made of.

Balgus stood up from his seat, which creaked and cracked like the bar had done under Grog’s weight, and made his way over to the rest of the party, brushing past Scanlan. Balgus sized up the group as he approached, eyes narrowed as he picked out who he was looking for, and his attention focused on Vex and Keyleth. With Grog and Scanlan in tow, he made his way down the bar to where most of the party watched on in confused surprise, not expecting him to join them.

Grog and Scanlan quickly rejoined their friends, and Keyleth leaned toward Scanlan while keeping her eyes fixed on Balgus. “Why is he coming towards us?” she asked quietly.

“I told him to,” Grog answered.

“Boobs,  _ boobs _ ,” was the only response from Scanlan as he nudged Keyleth, grinned, and nodded toward Balgus. The dwarf slammed a hand down on the bar as he found a seat and joined the party, looking between the two half-elves.

“Ya called for Balgus,” he said, watching them expectantly. “Why?”

Keyleth looked at Vex, lost and confused and not sure what to do, but Vex already had it covered. She smiled, gentle and flirty, as she propped one elbow up on the bar and rested her chin on her hand, leaning toward Balgus. “Hi,” she said lightly, her tone matching her smile. Vax watched his sister in amusement, shifting back in his seat to try and hide his growing grin behind the bear that stood at Vex’s side. “Hello, Balgus.”

“Hi,” Keyleth said, far less suave than Vex, the word quick and surprised as she tried taking her cues from her far less awkward friend.

“So. We just heard you were so impressive and masculine. We really want to talk to you,” Vex said, and her brother was no longer the only one struggling to keep his composure. Percy stifled a laugh, turning in his seat and hiding it behind a cough. Grog and Scanlan watched with undisguised grins, while Tiberius turned away from Balgus and reached up to grab at a small earring he wore, one that was identical in design to those worn by many of the party.

As Tiberius’s fingers closed on it, he quietly willed the message enchantment within to activate, his softly spoken words picked up by the earring and sent to those that also wore them. “Cool - cool it down,” Tiberius advised. “Calm down. Not so sexy.” Vex’s smile slipped a little but didn’t fully fade, and now Scanlan struggled to hide his laughter.

Keyleth reached her hand out awkwardly toward Balgus, a nervous smile on her face, oblivious to the message Tiberius was conveying since she didn’t have an earring of her own. As they were made by Tiberius himself, he still needed to find time to complete the set, so there were a couple people without earrings.

Despite the drunken, half-asleep daze Balgus seemed to be in, as soon as Keyleth’s hand came toward his arm, he smacked it away with the back of his hand and surprising speed. She drew her hand back quickly.

“No touching a drunk dwarf,” Balgus warned, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Keyleth and slowly lowering his hand once again.

“Sorry about my friend, Balgus,” Vex said. “She’s just so impressed with your...muscles. We’ve heard amazing things about you, dear.”

Balgus looked at Vex curiously and narrowed his eyes, hands planted on the bar as he leaned in slightly. “Have you? Tell me, what have you heard?” he asked.

“We’ve heard that no fighter can match your...skill,” Vex said, and Percy covered his face with a hand.

“You heard correct,” Balgus said, the hint of a smile making its way to his face behind the beard.

“We’ve heard you know more about this town than anyone else,” Vex continued. Balgus shrugged and tilted his head back and forth as he considered the statement.

“I’ve been around a bit, yeah,” he said after a moment of thinking about it, nodding. As he spoke, Balgus drew his arms in closer to his body, clasping his hands and resting his elbows on the bar. His attention was fixed on Vex now, the rest of the party not even getting so much as a sidelong glance, though most of them were happy to let Vex continue on her own.

Vex’s smile grew and she leaned forward more, dropping her hand and crossing her arms on the bar. “I bet  _ no one _ knows more about the Greyspines that you do,” she said strongly and pointedly. “And they’ve been around a long time.”

Mention of the Greyspines seemed to get a rise out of Balgus, whose mouth curled into a sneer and he dropped his hands to the bar with a thump. Vex continued to hold his gaze curiously. “Fat load of political ass minds is what they are,” Balgus spat.

“Ass minds?” Keyelth and Scanlan both asked, exchanging confused looks.

“They got minds of an ass!” Balgus said impatiently, jabbing a finger at his temple.

“Oh… I thought you meant mines like, they…” Keyleth said, gesturing vaguely with her hands. Her words trailed off as Balgus stared her down and she clasped her hands in her lap. “Yes. Ass minds. Go ahead?”

“Greyspines ain’t no friend of mine,” Balgus said, slowly looking away from Keyleth and toward Vex again. Keyleth sunk down in her seat as soon as he looked away.

“No. I’ve heard they’re terrible,” Vex said sympathetically, sitting back in her seat and crossing her arms over her chest, though her eyes still shone with curiosity and a gentle smile played at her lips. “What do you do, Balgus?”

“What do  _ I _ do? I own the brewery!” Balgus said with a grand sweep of his arm toward the tavern at large.

“The best brewery?” Vex said.

“The only. Of course it’s the best! I’ve put everyone out of business. We export to most of Tal’Dorei,” Balgus said, a heat and energy to his words that the party hadn’t yet heard from him. Though his tone also suggested they were stupid for asking, it was clear that this was a subject the drunk dwarf was very passionate about.

Vex lifted the goblet that sat on the bar in front of her and said, “This ale is amazing that I’m drinking right now.” She took a sip and Balgus sat up a little straighter, a proud grin on his face.

“Damn right it is,” he said. Vex set the cup back on the counter and Balgus reached out and grabbed it from her. She quickly hid a look of disgust as he took a drink from her cup and then put it back on the bar, apparently unperturbed. Vax stifled his laughter with the edge of his cloak at his sister’s expression, which only became more disgusted when Balgus spat on the ground next to him.

Keyleth and Vex traded glances, ignoring the rest of their party who were trying - and failing - to keep their composure. Even Pike was sinking down against Trinket’s back, her armor clanking against his, to muffle her quiet giggles. “So it, um…” Keyleth said, gaining Balgus’s attention again, and Percy quickly tried to neutralize his expression next to her. “It seems that you, uh, aren’t challenged much in business and in fighting.”

Grog, currently working on downing a large cup of his own ale, choked into the cup, and Vax reached over to slam a hand down on his back a couple of times. Meanwhile, Tiberius interposed himself between Balgus and Keyleth, lifting his hand in a quick greeting.

“Hello!” Tiberius said cheerfully, getting an odd look from the dwarf. “My name is Tiberius Stormwind.”

“Dragonborn,” Balgus said with interest, his curiosity slowly turning into a grin. “I haven’t fought one of your kind in a long time.”

“Oh,” Tiberius said, caught off guard by the statement. “Who was the last dragonborn you fought? Do you remember his name?”

Balgus looked up at the ceiling as he spoke, saying slowly, “As I recall, his name was...broken and bloody.” He looked back at Tiberius with his grin spreading, and a fanatic look in his eyes that the party had seen on Grog on multiple occasions. This was certainly a dwarf ready for a fight.

“I think that’s a friend of yours,” Scanlan said.

“No, I know them,” Tiberius agreed. “I know the Bloody family. They’re terrible people.” Balgus’s grin broke, a confused frown taking its place as he gaped at the dragonborn and his apparent sincerity. “Anyway, my associates and I were wondering if you might accompany - that’s what we’re doing, right?” The question was much quieter, directed at his nearby friends, while Balgus’s confusion only seemed to grow.

“We’re trying to get more information on the Greyspines,” Scanlan answered just as quietly.

“Yes! That,” Tiberius said.

“Glad you came over,” Keyleth muttered into the cup she raised to her lips.

“Would you like to accompany us on this journey that we’re taking?” Tiberius asked, once more to Balgus at normal volume, oblivious to the fact that Scanlan was quickly shaking his head and Vex covered her face with her hand. “We’re trying to find the Greyspines. And you seem like you would want to come in on this!”

Percy put a hand up toward Tiberius, quietly dismissing his questions, and said gently, “We think there might be something rotten in the mines.”

Balgus barely glanced in Percy’s direction, the odd look he gave still trained on Tiberius. “Well, no,” he said. “I don’t really want to go anywhere with ya.  _ But _ , if you’re looking to go ahead and talk to the Greyspines, you don’t want to go empty-handed. It’s customary to come with...a gift of some kind.”

“What might they like?” Scanlan asked as the rest of the party exchanged glances.

“Well, let’s just say, I have the finest brewery in the city,” Balgus answered. “And I have some fine, very rare, very exotic drinks that I could perchance sell to ya.”

Vex looked a little wary at the mention of payment and Vax leaned in close, a hand up in front of his mouth as a barrier between them and Balgus as he muttered to her, “Pay the dwarf.”

“How much for this exotic ale?” Vex asked slowly.

Balgus’s eyes gleamed and he leaned forward on the bar once more. “How exotic you wanting?” he asked.

“We want to get in the door. We want him to like us,” Vex said.

“I can give you,” Balgus said, holding a finger up toward Vex, “the finest of thistle branch dark blood wine. This was crafted by myself from a rare blood thistle branch I had brought over from the far-off city of Kamoda. This, I personally oversaw. It took me  _ four years _ to fill this barrel full, and it’ll cost you five hundred gold pieces. But, it’s a king’s right wine.”

As he spoke, Percy slid up next to Grog and said, “I bet he might be interested in a wager. In an oval. Do you have any thoughts on this, Grog?” He looked over to the fighting ring pointedly, but when he turned back, Percy realized Grog was thoroughly distracted by Vex pulling at the bag of holding he carried so she could rummage through it.

“We have some very rare items with us, that I think you might be interested in,” she told Balgus with a smile.

“You got one minute,” Balgus said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Vex dug around in the bag for a moment while Balgus looked on impatiently, and withdrew a container of dark red, rather congealed blood. “We have this container of dragon’s blood, which I know can be added to ale or wine and makes it quite sensational.”

Balgus stared at the container and then reached out to grab it, pulling it close to his face to inspect it. He twisted it back and forth, and instead of the slow, oozing flow that should have come from blood, the contents seem to have nearly gelatinized. They slid back and forth in a solid chunk with audible squelching noises each time he turned the container.

“You just need to get a spoon of it,” Vex said, undeterred, as Balgus lifted the lid and sniffed the contents. His nose wrinkled in disgust and he practically closed his eyes, closing it back up and pulling it away from his face with a displeased sound.

Balgus sat it down on the bar in front of him, resting his hand on the lid. “I can have this appraised,” he said. “But if you want to do a straight trade for the barrel, for this, I’ll take you up on that.”

Suddenly a little unsure, and questioning how much that single cup was actually worth, Vex frowned at him and looked around the group, though she received little help from them. “Alright. One cup of it,” she agreed after a moment, her smile returning as she winked at Balgus.

“Alright,” Balgus said, tucking the cup into a small satchel at his side. He turned in his seat and hollered, “Adra!”

Adra looked away from another dwarf she was helping, over toward the group, and shouted back, “Aye! What you want, you drunken bastard?”

“They bought my thistle blood wine,” Balgus answered. “Take it out the back. Here’s the key.” He rummaged around at his belt for a moment and pulled out a key, which he tossed over the party and toward Adra.

Catching the key with ease, Adra’s eyebrows climbed up toward her hairline and she said, no longer shouting, “Really? Well. Just walked in and they’re buying fancy.” She disappeared into the back room of the tavern and returned before too long, with two bar hands in tow. They carried between them a barrel, finely crafted with golden bands holding the wooden slats together, and the brand on the side had been decorated with gold leaf.

The two dwarfs brought it up to the group and set it on the bar, and Balgus patted the side of the barrel fondly. “All yours,” he said with a smile. “And if this doesn’t get you in the door, I’ll eat my shoe.”

“Good to know,” Vex said.

“Have you ever done that?” Grog asked at the same time, looking at Balgus oddly.

Balgus frowned up at the ceiling thoughtfully and said to Grog, “Maybe. I forget a lot of nights.”

“And where might that door be?” Scanlan asked, interrupting Balgus’s thought process.

“Minute’s up,” Balgus said, tapping at his wrist with a finger. “You’ll have to ask around. But it was great doing business with ya.” He slammed a hand down on the counter and got up, moving away from the party.

“You, too!” Tiberius called after him, lifting his hand in a farewell wave, though Balgus didn’t turn around to see it.

Grog grabbed the fancy barrel of wine and tried to shove it into the bag of holding, to no avail. As helpful as the bag had proved to be in the past, it wasn’t as helpful when the opening was too small to put something through. The bag simply couldn’t take something so large, and Grog scowled at the barrel but set it by him and his new cask.

“Maybe if we drank some of it, it would fit,” Scanlan suggested after watching Grog wrestle with it.

“It doesn’t work like that,” Tiberius said, shaking his head and looking at Scanlan as if the gnome had lost his mind.

While they talked about whether or not drinking from a wooden barrel would change its size, Vex got Adra’s attention, to ask after the whereabouts of Greyspine Manor.

“Uh, well, I can have Belan help,” she said, poking at a bar hand as he moved past. He looked a bit younger than most of the others, not nearly as worn down, though a little frazzled just from nerves and the energy of the tavern itself. He glanced at Adra then to Vex and nodded.

“Yeah, I can show ya around. Just follow me outside. Come, follow me,” he said, gesturing for Vox Machina to trail behind him. Vex got the party’s attention, conveying that they should come with, and they did so with few words. They followed as the dwarf made his way out of the tavern, adjusting the apron that he wore, and to the edge of the circular walkway that made up the main street of Kraghammer’s center. Trinket struggled a moment with the doorway, and Pike patted his head when he pushed his way through.

Across the way, Vex could see marble pillars that outlined what appeared to be a residential district, which consumed that portion of the central ring. The young dwarf bar hand pointed in that direction and said, “So if you go that way, you’ll look for the house of Greyspine. It’s the one that has dark black marble with gold tint to the inside, the spiraling vein of the marble is gold. Uh, the gate outside is a wrought iron, black iron, that’s topped with a series of pikes and uh… The real key point is if you look in the front yard, you’ll see a dwarven statue of the current Ironkeeper himself. So that’s where you want to go.”

“You’re very helpful, young man. Thank you,” Scanlan said. He and most of the party were more than a little impressed with the level of information they had just received, since they’d expected little more than “walk that way.”

“Of course! And if you get the chance, could you fill out a little form saying how helpful I’ve been and give it back?” he said. Agreement came quickly from the party, drowning out the young dwarf’s words, and he smiled and pulled out a piece of parchment. The words on it were handwritten with a few checkboxes drawn on, and he passed it to Keyleth when she reached out for it.

“Why don’t you give us all a copy and then you can have multiple?” Tiberius suggested.

“I only have one…” Belan said awkwardly, shuffling his feet.

“Oh, well that’s fine,” Tiberius said, brushing his own suggestion aside with a quick wave of his hand.

Scanlan grabbed the parchment from Keyleth, produced a pen from a pouch, and started scribbling, reading what he wrote out loud. “Confidence needs improvement,” he said, and Belan visibly deflated at his words. “But the rest was excellent! Here you go.” Scanlan finished marking boxes on the paper and handed it back, and the dwarf clutched it to his chest, and with a few quick thanks, vanished back inside the tavern. “Alright, shall we go to the manor?”

“Do we want to go to the manor right now?” Vex asked, glancing around and up as if she could see the sky. “What time is it?”

“Five or six?” Scanlan guessed, basing it off of the time that they had arrived at the city and how much seemed to have passed since.

“We might not want to bug him when he’s, y’know, having dinner,” Vex pointed out.

“Alright, yes, we’ll go sleep,” Scanlan conceded.

“Well it’s only six,” Vex reminded him.

“So then we’ll have time to do other things,” Scanlan said with a growing, lewd grin on his face. Grog caught the expression and his eyes lit up eagerly.

“I’m going to House Thunderbrand if anyone wants to come with me,” Tiberius announced. “I’ve had a nice little rest, and I’d like to ask them a few questions.”

Vex nodded. “Alright, cool. And you?” she said, turning to Grog and Scanlan, who had grouped together.

“Is there any recon that’s going to happen tonight?” Scanlan asked.

Turning to her brother, Vex pointed at him and said, “I think you and I are going to go to Greyspine.”

“Do you need any help?” Scanlan asked.

“Sure, you can come with us,” Vax said with a shrug.

“No, I don’t want you to say yes,” Scanlan corrected, shaking his head and putting his hands up.

Vax grinned at him and Vex said, “Then no. We’ll stealth our way.”

“But first,” Vax said, turning to their other gnome friend. “Pike. You seem distracted. Are you okay, do you need to rest?”

Pike blinked and shook her head quickly, snapping out of her thoughts and giving Vax a small smile. “I’m fine. I’m just a little distracted. It feels like I’ve been here before…” she said quietly, looking all around Kraghammer and completely oblivious to the confused and concerned looks of her party. “I think I’m going to go rest for the evening.” She slid off of Trinket, running her fingers the fur she could reach beneath the armor, and disappeared back inside the tavern, leaving everyone else to figure out their plans before going to bed themselves.

“Grog and I are going to go in search of a, shall I say politely, whore house,” Scanlan announced as soon as Pike disappeared into the tavern.

“The cleric’s away and the bard shall play,” Vax commented, getting an elbow in the side from his sister, but he just grinned at her.

“We need a massage. On my crotch,” Grog agreed. The pair got more than their fair share of eye rolls and either disgusted or slightly amused glances.

Keyleth interrupted their plans, grabbing at Percy’s sleeve. “Percy and I are going to make some really nice comment cards. For…” she trailed off, realizing that she had forgotten the young dwarf’s name.

“We’re going to make some beautiful comment cards for Belan,” Percy said with a nod.

“Oh, Percy has wonderful calligraphy. You’ve shown me,” Vax said.

“Yes, thank you,” Percy said with a slightly confused smile.

Once their plans were in place, the party split off to go do their own separate missions for the night, before they were to meet back up at the tavern.


	2. Greyspine Manor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and support, guys! I didn't know if this was something that people would want to see when I started it, and I'm happy to write it all out if you guys enjoy it! I was hoping to get to the end of Arrival at Kraghammer by the end of this chapter, but that didn't happen, so the first Critical Role episode will probably be a three-parter. But I hope you all continue to enjoy it, because I certainly do.

Scanlan and Grog hurried away from the group together, in search of a whore house, as Scanlan had so eloquently put it. Scanlan led the way through the streets of Kraghammer, looking at the signs and buildings as they passed, trying to find somewhere that sounded promising himself since Grog couldn’t read and help look. After a short while of walking with no real idea of where they might be going, they came to a business called The Stone’s Pillow that seemed to offer the services they were looking for.

Inside was warm and comfortable. It was well-lit and though the entry room was small and the decoration was simple, it was still lush and inviting. It was decorated in reds and purples, the rough stonework covered with tapestries, drapes, lounges, and cushions. They were greeted by the madam of the house and charged, rather exorbitantly, for the time they planned to spend there. Considering that it appeared to be a higher end establishment, and Vex wasn’t there to micromanage the funds, neither one had an issue with shelling out what was asked.

Once the two paid, the madam introduced them to their potential companions. It was ladies for the most part, but a number of male dwarves were introduced as well, in case either of them preferred the company of men. Most of the women were dwarves, which considering the location wasn’t unexpected, but there was a single gnome who tried to catch Scanlan’s eye and an elf who seemed far more shy and embarrassed compared to everyone else.

Scanlan chose one of the dwarven ladies from the gathering, while Grog just wanted “the tallest” and was accompanied by the elf. Grog was pleasantly surprised to find that the elf had an energy she hadn’t shown when they’d met, while Scanlan discovered the dwarf woman was far more aggressive than he’d expected. But they definitely got their money’s worth.

\-----

When Scanlan and Grog walked away from the rest of the group, the twins made their way toward the residential district, intending to scope out Greyspine Manor before they tried to approach and speak to Nostoc.

“So we’ll just check out the guards and the area,” Vex said to her brother as they left the group and he nodded.

“Pretend to take a stroll. Pose as a...couple,” Vax suggested, pausing as soon as the words left his mouth, and Vex smacked him on the arm.

“Ew, gross,” she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

Vax smiled faintly, enjoying the reaction he received from a comment that hadn’t been cleared with his brain before leaving his mouth, and he said dismissively, “Just for the purposes of sneaking around the manor.” Vex turned away from him and made a loud retching sound as she pretended to vomit.

“How about we pose as brother and sister, creepy?” Vex said dryly, turning back to look at him. Vax just stared at her for a moment and then shook his head, his smile becoming faintly disbelieving.

“You come on to every human, orc, and half-elf in the  _ entire _ kingdom, but pretending to be my wife for thirty minutes is too much,” he laughed.

“Yes! It’s disgusting. So, no,” Vex insisted.

“You’re probably right,” Vax allowed, grinning at the dirty look she gave him.

The pair made their way into the residential district, the houses grouped together along the pathway. The red stones that illuminated the city were clumped in lamp-like formations throughout the district, providing faint light that they could see by. The further they walked, the more often they saw standalone homes carved out of nice rock, marble and decorative stonework becoming more prominent as the houses increased in luxury.

It didn’t take long for the twins to realize they were being followed. Both of their usual lines of work required them to be well aware of their surroundings, and being in a city changed nothing in that regard. Three of the Carvers trailed along behind the half-elves, watching as Vex and Vax moved further into the district. The dwarves had no weapons drawn and didn’t appear overly hostile, but their hands lingered near their weapon handles in preparation.

“Let’s be very obvious about pointing out which of these is pretty, so it just looks like we’re sightseeing,” Vex muttered, and her brother nodded once in agreement. Raising her voice and pointing toward one of the buildings they passed, Vex declared, “Oh, look at the one with the carvings, it’s amazing!”

“The architecture is...divine,” Vax agreed, putting a hand up to his chin as he likewise studied the structure he really knew next to nothing about. It was rather nice, compared to some of the plainer buildings they had passed early on, but it wasn’t exactly exceptional.

In this manner, they only made it a few more feet before a gruff voice behind them shouted out, “Hail. Hail!” The twins stopped and turned, matching looks of innocent surprise on their faces.

Vex smiled at them, throwing her slightly messy braid over her shoulder with a sweep of her hand. “Oh! Oh, my. Yes?” she said pleasantly. Her chipper attitude seemed lost on the dwarves, who regarded the twins coolly.

“You foreigners are wandering too far in districts you don’t belong to,” one of the dwarves said. He seemed to be in charge, or at least spokesperson for the small group, standing just ahead of his fellow guards. He had a dark, frazzled black beard that was braided down to his bellybutton, and was clad in the same dark, scar-marked armor of the rest of the Carvers. “What’s your business?”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I was just so amazed by the architecture here. I wanted to see the beautiful sculpture,” Vex gushed, clasping her hands in front of her chest, eyes wide with all the innocence and naivety of someone who didn’t know what they were doing was wrong. It was a look she had been perfecting since she was a child.

“We definitely are visitors here, sir. No one has explained, I guess, the rules to your city,” Vax added, mimicking his sister’s expression and general outward attitude. He had been practicing it just as long, and many people considered the matching expressions disconcerting. “We were just taking in the fantastic architecture and history of Kraghammer.”

“We were told there was a beautiful sculpture down the street? Of the ruler of Kraghammer?” Vex said, gesturing down the way they had been walking, appearing a little lost and confused.

The lead dwarf stepped up closer, glancing back at his companions for second then to the half-elves. “Well, just to tell you the rules here,” he started, “if you’re going to go ahead and wander at night in the very expensive district, you don’t want to do it by yourself, because you either have chances of being mugged or arrested. We might’ve arrested you.” He gestured to the other two Carvers as he spoke, and one of them nodded.

Vex’s eyes widened and she put a hand up to her chest. “Oh, no. I’m so sorry!” She glanced around the street nervously and then looked back down toward the dwarf. “Do we need protection?”

A noise drew one of the guard’s attention, and everyone looked around to see an armored bear trying to very quietly keep up with the twins. Trinket crept along with as much care as he could manage, his armor scraping quietly against itself, and he paused when everyone’s eyes fell on him. The dwarves looked alarmed at seeing such a sight, and Vex smiled sheepishly.

“Come on over here, Trinket,” Vax called, gesturing for the bear to come up and join them.

“It’s a bear! What’s a bear doing in Kraghammer?” the dwarf they’d been speaking to shouted, jumping back in alarm as Trinket lumbered his way over to the twins happily. The Carver and his friends grabbed at their warhammers, and Vex stepped up, putting up her hands.

“He’s completely trained. He does tricks,” Vax promised. The dwarves looked on warily as Trinket nudged against Vex’s side.

Nodding quickly, Vex said, “He does! Trinket, show them your wonderful shake trick.”

Trinket looked at her and let out a couple grumbling and moaning noises before shaking his entire body as if trying to get dry, the plates of his armor clinking together and loose fur flying. He looked back at Vex with his head tilted in confusion, and she smiled back. She gave him a thumbs up, to which Trinket slowly raised a paw into the air, gently swiping at nothing.

“If you put your hand out, he’ll shake your hand,” Vex told the dwarves enthusiastically. Trinket huffed and swiped down toward the dwarves, not aggressively or with intent to attack, but instead a rather enthusiastic handshake.

The dwarves took a step back at the motion, watching Trinket with equal parts caution and fear. “That’s all right,” the lead dwarf said nervously and slowly. “I would say, if that’s your animal, don’t bring it here.” He looked at Vex very intently, warhammer still in his hand, and Trinket moaned out a small complaint.

“Good to know, good to know,” Vex said slowly, putting a hand on Trinket’s back. The metal of his armor was cool to the touch, a sharp contrast from the warm fur her fingertips brushed against. The dwarves continued to stare at the bear and Vex patted him on the shoulder. “Trinket, head back to the tavern, would you? People are getting nervous.”

Trinket let out a low, sad rumble and started to make his way back toward the tavern, trudging slowly and solemnly down the road. “I love you!” she said quietly as he left. A couple other dwarves walking the street looked wide-eyed at the armored bear and gave him a wide berth, hurrying on their way and trying to avoid making eye contact.

“Don’t worry!” Vax called to the dwarves. “He’s a sweetheart, he’s fine!” The dwarves spared a quick glance toward the two half-elves and continued their speedy walk to their homes.

One of the Carvers watched Trinket go and huffed, tucking his warhammer away with force as he turned back to Vex. “Look, I’ll show you to the statue, and that’s it,” he promised. “Then you go.”

“Alright,” Vex said cheerfully. “Thank you!”

“I don’t see many half-elves, and honestly, I’m...excited to meet you,” he admitted quietly, almost a little embarrassed. “So let’s just do this quickly and then get out. Come with me.”

The dwarf took the lead, gesturing for the twins to follow, and they did so readily, falling into step behind him. He led them between buildings and along the smaller streets that branched off from the central circle of Kraghammer. Eventually they came to a wrought iron gate set into a wall, spikes carved carefully into the top of the gate itself. Past that was the large, beautifully crafted dark marble building with fine gold veins, exactly as Belan had described.

Vex gasped, grasping at her brother’s sleeve. “This one is beautiful,” she breathed, still playing up the tourist bit.

“Aye, this is what you were talking about. Greyspine Manor,” said their dwarven guide, nodding and looking over the estate. “Lots of rich sons of bitches.”

“Wow,” Vex said, quickly digging an elbow into her brother’s side while he tried to hide his laughter. “So you said the Greyspines owned this one? Wow.”

“It’s stunning,” Vax said, after he’d take a moment to compose himself. “We only heard about the building itself. What can you tell us about the people who live here?”

“Bunch of rich sons of bitches,” the dwarf repeated with a strained smile. Vax nodded.

“We can tell that, can’t we?” Vex said mildly.

“Actually, the Ironkeeper is alright,” the dwarf allowed, putting a hand up as he corrected himself. “He’s been doing a good job. The rest of the family can suck off.” He gestured out toward the manor with his hand, a sharp, aggressively dismissive gesture.

“Not so well liked by the rest of the city, then?” Vax ventured.

The dwarf shrugged, moving his head back and forth vaguely, and said, “They have friends everywhere. But I personally don’t really like them.” He lowered his voice a bit after a quick glance around and continued, “They run business pretty tough… They work most of their employees to the ground. To the bone.”

“Wow, it sounds like they would run the mithril mine, which we’ve heard is just so hard on its employees,” Vex said sympathetically.

“Aye, that’s the one,” the dwarf sighed. “I - I don’t go that far south. It doesn’t interest me.” He sniffed, a quick inhale, and shook his head. “Smells of brimstone.”

“I don’t blame you,” Vex said.

“We prefer the company of good, hardworking people. Like yourself,” Vax said. “We’re very impressed with the work the Carvers do in this city, what little we’ve seen so far, so hats off to you.”

The dwarf nodded and said, “I appreciate that. You know, it’s not an easy life. You’re kind of born into it. And, uh, spend most of your time training. Which can get very...boring.”

Before he could get much further, one of the other two dwarves who had followed the small group through the streets cleared his throat. “All right, Thompson. We’ve got to get back to our posts!” he called out sternly.

Thompson looked a little startled and like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn't have. “Sorry,” he said to the other Carvers. He addressed the two half-elves and said gently, “Look, we’ve done a bit too much. Just follow us back, go about your business, don’t wander around here at night, and uh… Good luck.”

“Thank you so much,” Vex said, and Thompson dipped his head in a quick nod and hurriedly rejoined his fellow Carvers. The twins followed the dwarves through the residential section, and occasionally one of the guards would glance back to make sure they were still close behind.

Without saying much, both of the twins came to the same conclusion and attempted to slip away from the Carvers after a short time. Vax slipped between buildings with ease, pulling his cloak in close to keep it from flying out behind him as he vanished from view. Vex started to follow, but was stopped by one of the dwarves they’d been following.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Thompson called out, and she looked back at them with a look of innocence plastered on her face again. “I told you, it’s dangerous back there. Don’t do that.” The dwarf glanced around, a small frown on his face, and asked, “Where’s your friend?”

“Oh, he already went back to the tavern that we’re staying at,” Vex said, gesturing vaguely in a direction away from them and quickly changing the subject. “I was hoping maybe you could show me around the rest of the town.”

Thompson looked over at the other dwarves, who let out grumbling sighs and wordless complaints, the two of them apparently fed up with the entire situation. “Well, uh… You guys hold our posts, I’ll make a quick walk around,” he said.

“All right, but I’m gonna tell the boss,” one of the dwarves promised.

“Fine,” Thompson said sharply. He pitched his voice a little lower but Vex still clearly heard him say, “I don’t get this chance very often.” The dwarf he spoke to looked rather unimpressed, but Thompson turned to Vex with a smile and said, “Follow me!” As Vex started to do so, she faintly saw her brother lurking in an alleyway nearby, and he grinned and waved cheekily as she went along with Thompson.

\-----

When Vox Machina split up, Tiberius left to wander on his own as Keyleth and Percy returned to the tavern with their plans of comment card creation. He started asking those he ran into about the location of House Thunderbrand, hoping to be able to speak to them before the night was out.

He was rather used to getting a cool reception due to being a dragonborn, so he wasn’t exactly surprised when the search took him two full hours, though it made it no less annoying. Some people had refused to speak to him entirely, and others had given him the wrong directions on purpose, apparently kind and helpful up front and then their deceit was discovered not long after.

The building itself, when Tiberius finally reached it, was a large and beautiful alabaster building with an arched dome and spires built up to the tall cavern top of Kraghammer. Around the structure itself was a lawn, green and well maintained despite the underground location. Bushes, flowers, and a couple little trees grew up from the grass, and Tiberius swore he saw a couple birds perched within the branches, apparently unfazed by the fact that they were not actually above ground.

“Well this is a lovely sight,” Tiberius said to himself, looking around in surprise as he approached. Gripping his staff tightly in one hand, he strolled toward the building with confidence. As he brought his foot down at the edge of the grassy lawn, a rune carved into the stone caught his attention, small and unpronounced, and quickly covered by his foot.

A split second of crackling arcane energy gave Tiberius enough warning to start stepping back, as blue energy sprang up with enough force to throw him back a few feet. He landed on his feet, stumbled, and caught himself. The rune faded back to dormancy again, alongside other runes that Tiberius now noticed were carved along the outside of the lawn.

Tiberius looked at the runes with confused interest as he dusted himself off, readjusting his robes on his shoulders. “Apparently this has some security,” he muttered, slowly approaching the line of runes once more, but carefully not stepping on another. On the edge of the line, Tiberius cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted out, “Hello?” There was no response for a couple minutes, and it was easily assumed that standing around waiting wouldn’t provide any more of a reaction.

Studying the doorway while he waited, Tiberius decided to try more magical means of getting the inhabitants’ attention. With a quick, muttered incantation, he created a faintly glowing, purple hand in the air before him and willed it across the runes to the door. As soon as it passed over the line of runes, the arcane energy sizzled and then burst apart, the spell fading.

“Damn these runes,” Tiberius growled, looking at them in frustration. Another idea struck him and he took a few steps back, putting space between himself and the yard. Another spell formed, cold energy condensing between Tiberius’s hands. He extended them out and down toward the ground, and another blast of ice and frost left his hands and crackled along the stone toward the building. Once the glacial blast hit the line of runes, the one Tiberius had stepped on flashed blue once more, and the ice climbed upwards against an invisible wall. The ice pressed against the barrier melted quickly as Tiberius watched, puddling to the ground and leaving only the frost that clung to the stone between himself and the runes.

Letting out a frustrated huff, Tiberius narrowed his eyes at the ice and the rune that was thwarting him, and then spun on his heel to return to the tavern with the others. He could handle this problem later, perhaps with the rest of his party around to help come up with new ideas.

As he spun around, Tiberius saw four Carvers hurrying down the road toward him, hammers out and the glares on their faces were angry and suspicious. “You!” one of the Carvers shouted as the group came up to Tiberius, the four of them moving to surround him.

“What?” Tiberius demanded, throwing an arm out and smacking the end of his staff on the ground in frustration. First the door, now these idiots. This wasn’t how this trip was supposed to be going.

“You have attacked one of the great dwarven families of Kraghammer,” the dwarf declared, glaring up at Tiberius. His armor had extra markings and etchings carved into it, likely denoting a higher rank, and his eyes were nearly pitch black above his ruddy brown beard. “Name yourself and your business before you’re under arrest.”

“Don’t speak to me in that manner, I am Tiberius Stormwind!” Tiberius hollered back, matching glare for glare. His voice boomed in the enclosed space and caverns of the city, his sharp teeth clenching into a snarl, and all four Carvers shifted back a step warily, glancing at each other.

The one who had been speaking said, now gentler and a little nervously, “Look, we’re just doing our job. What’s your business?”

“I understand that, and I’m sorry for losing my temper,” Tiberius said, calming himself, though he still spoke quickly and with a vague hint of annoyance in his tone. “But I was just looking to ask questions of particular artifacts I’ve been looking for, and this house is the only known arcane house I know that I was pointed to. I tried to reach them and communicate, but I was stopped by this stupid rune I can’t figure out!” He gestured behind him in annoyance with his staff, pointing out the slick coating of ice and frost on the ground and the collection of runes around the house.

“So I was turning back to get to my tavern to get some rest,” Tiberius said, barely taking a moment to breathe, “and, you know, come back and try to contact the family the next day! And then I was stopped by you!” Tiberius’s voice rose in annoyance once more, and he threw his hands out in a wild, frustrated gesture.

The head Carver stepped back up close to Tiberius and said coldly, “Look. We’ll let you off this once. But if you so much as  _ spit _ in the direction of any dwarf in this city, we’re going to bury you so far underneath the dungeon that you won’t see the light of day until the day you rot. Do you hear me, dragonborn?”

“I mean, yes, my hearing’s perfectly fine,” Tiberius huffed, though the dwarves seemed unimpressed with his quip. The leader gestured sharply for Tiberius to move along, shoving his warhammer back into its place at his side, and he and the others stared the dragonborn down as they moved away from him.

“Good day,” Tiberius said as he left, waving while moving past the dwarves and back toward the tavern to meet up with the others.

\-----

Vax, now left alone in the residential district as Vex managed to get caught up in a tour, slipped through the smaller side roads and alleys that went out from the central ring of Kraghammer, back toward Greyspine Manor. He wasn’t intending to do anything, not really, just a little recon without the Carvers on his back. In and out before too long, no problems. His sister’s city tour would probably take longer than his own trip.

He stopped within sight of the manor but off the main street, taking a moment to sit back and observe. Vax watched as pairs of Carvers patrolled the streets, and he could almost always see at least one of these pairs. The manor itself didn’t appear to have a security detail of its own - whether their guard didn’t venture around the gates, they had some unseen defense in play, or the Carvers were enough protection, Vax didn’t know. He did see movement in the manor itself, people going past lit windows, but it was impossible to know who they might be.

After watching for a few minutes, checking to see if there were times where the Carvers didn’t have sight on the gate - there weren’t - and if a guard appeared within the manor’s property itself - they didn’t - Vax turned around and made his way back toward the tavern.

The party met back up as the evening grew late. Keyleth and Percy had holed up in one of the rooms upstairs, and they were slowly joined by everyone else. Tiberius made his way back first, followed by Vax. Vex came back a while later, after her district tour with Thompson, and Grog and Scanlan returned last. “We’re back,” Grog announced with a grin as they joined the rest of the party in Percy and Tiberius’s room. With everyone but Pike inside, it was a little crowded, and there weren’t many places to sit that weren’t the floor, but it was quieter than the tavern itself.

“I have hickies,” Scanlan sang, bouncing across the room and flinging himself onto one of the beds, pieces of parchment that were spread in front of Percy scattering.

“Hickies? Is that a gnomish STD?” Vax asked with a smirk. Scanlan just smiled and shrugged, settling himself comfortably at the end of the bed.

“Crazy. I have some hickies, too,” Vex said off-handedly. Grog gave her a strange look, and Vax wrinkled his nose at her. “What?”

“And we have comment cards,” Percy interjected quickly before the conversation could continue, gathering up the parchment and holding it up, his fine handwriting looping across them.

“Yes, here,” Keyleth said, passing out pieces of parchment to everyone. Grog looked down at it with his brows furrowed as he tried to decipher what was written and what he was supposed to do, and most everyone else took theirs and set them aside for the moment.

Scanlan glanced at the paper and nodded, tucking it away. “Productive night all around then. Did you learn anything, Vex and Vax?”

“I definitely think we should take the diplomacy route,” Vax said, fiddling with the parchment between his fingers. “The place is heavily guarded. There seem to be lots of Carvers -”

A knock interrupted Vax, loud and sharp on the room’s door, and he stopped mid-sentence and looked around in confusion. “I’ll get it,” Scanlan said after a second, jumping off the bed. He pulled opened the door and poked his head outside. “Hello?”

Adra stood just outside, a little nervous and unsure. “Hi, uh, sorry to bother you,” she said. “Is that bear one of yours?” She looked confused and worried as she pointed behind her, toward the tavern proper, and Vex grinned.

“Oh, yes, Trinket!” she said cheerfully, grinning. “Isn’t he adorable?”

“You might want to go…” Adra said, still pointing back, and a rumbling growl punctuated her sentence. Trinket’s grumbling and bellowing whines of confusion reached the party easily, even over the general white noise coming from the tavern.

“I’ll be right back,” Vex told everyone, heading downstairs with Adra and momentarily pausing when she got a good look at the room before her.

All the dwarves they had passed on their way back inside were gathered around the fighting ring in the center of the tavern, and they had managed to get Trinket within the ring itself. A couple dwarves were at his sides, poking and prodding him into the ring and keeping him there, while Trinket himself moaned and grumbled and tried to back out.

“No, no. No! No,  _ no _ ,” Vex cried, hurrying forward and pushing between the dwarves to get between them and her bear. The dwarves around her shouted and cheered as their fellows kept Trinket contained, none of them listening to the half-elf. Realizing she was getting nowhere with them, and with one hand out toward the dwarves, Vex cupped the other around her mouth and hollered as loud as she could, “Grog!”

Vex’s shouted echoed up the staircase, and her friends responded quickly, hurrying down the stairs and into the tavern itself. Meanwhile, Balgus approached the ring with an eager smile and a gleam to his eye. “No, no, no,” Vex shouted, shoving her hand out in a stop motion toward him and all the other dwarves around.

Balgus completely ignored her, stretching and lifting his fists up in a ready motion. “Oh, I’ve never fought a bear before!” he cried cheerfully, laughing and grinning, and with eyes only for Trinket. The bear, for his part, seemed nervous and anxious and just wanted out.

“Trinket, come here!” Vex called, gesturing for him to join her. Trinket looked around at her voice, moaning pitifully, but was unable to move past the dwarves that were keeping him within the ring. “No. No, no. No,” Vex said to the dwarves, pushing past them and into the ring with her furry friend when the dwarves still didn’t listen.

As she moved past, the dwarves nearby let out excited shouts and pat her on the back, the force of so many eager hands practically shoving her into the ring and making her stumble into Trinket’s side. She planted her hands on the armor of his back and looked around for a moment, a smile spreading across her face. “ _ I’ll _ take on this bear,” she declared, patting Trinket’s armor and standing up straight. Out of the corner of her eye, back toward the staircase, Vex caught the surprised and faintly amused looks of some of her friends, even as they moved through the dwarves and closer to the ring themselves.

Balgus stepped into the ring, eyes fully open and slur mostly gone as he’d sobered up quite a bit since they’d last left him. “Oh, no,” he said, eyeing Trinket. “This bear is  _ mine _ . You want to fight, too, lass?” His attention flicked up to her, grin still in place, as he slammed a fist into his open palm. “Oh, it’ll wake you right up!”

“Let’s do it,” Vex agreed, nervous but determined, especially if it meant keeping Trinket safe.

As the energy in the room grew with anticipation, the cheers and shouts from the watching dwarves growing louder, a dense ball of fog formed in the middle of the ring and rapidly spread outward to cover the entire area. The cheers dissolved as dwarves suddenly cried out, confused and surprised by what was happening. Some started coughing, others yelled out demanding questions as to what was happening, as visibility became next to nothing within the fog. Vex could see Trinket and the moving, fuzzy shapes of the dwarves around her, and little else. She didn’t even know if she could distinguish her friends in this, except probably Grog.

Keyleth emerged from the fog, right alongside Trinket and Vex, planting her hands on the bear’s shoulder. “Trinket, I’m tapping you out,” she said, and then beneath her hands, Trinket shrank and compacted, his form shifting into that of a mouse. The little animal looked up, confused, and even more so when Keyleth picked up Trinket from the ground and tossed him. “Scanlan, catch!”

Scanlan, outside the ring and close by, reached up to catch the mouse on instinct, fumbling with Trinket’s small form and trying to find somewhere to put him. “I don’t like mice, but I’ll take him!” he called. He ended up cradling the Trinket mouse in one arm, a finger scratching between his large ears. “It’s okay. It’s okay,” he said quietly and comfortingly, while Trinket scurried and spun as he tried to figure out what was happening.

Within the ring, Keyleth’s form started changing as well, becoming larger and furrier. She shifted into a bear, standing right where Trinket had been, large and intimidating and very similar to the animal she was trying to mimic.

“I got my money on Ballsack,” Grog declared, and Scanlan looked around at him with wide eyes.

“Don’t bet on the enemy!” he said.

Meanwhile, Vax made his way through the crowd, toward the lone dwarven figure standing within the fog-covered ring. He vaulted over one of the dwarves standing beside the ring, with a hand planted on his shoulder, and pulled a dagger as he did so. The dwarf let out an indignant shout as he was pushed down, but Vax ignored him. Vax landed in the ring, twirling the weapon between his fingers and gripping it so that he would hit with the hilt instead of the blade. He stepped up behind Balgus, the only dwarf standing off on his own, and brought the dagger down toward the back of Balgus’s head.

Balgus was swinging wildly through the fog, warming himself up for a fight and apparently unperturbed by the sudden lack of visibility. Vax had to duck out of the way to avoid being smacked in the face and he came up behind Balgus, swinging his dagger. The dagger’s hilt smacked into Balgus’s neck with a resounding, highly audible crack. The cheering that had once again picked up quieted in anticipation at the sound, and Balgus didn’t even move. Vibrations from the impact lanced up Vax’s arm, and it felt as if he had hit a wall. For all the reaction he got, he may as well have.

Vax pulled the dagger away, ready to bolt, but before he could do much more than shift a few inches back, Balgus’s hand snapped up quicker than expected and clamped down on Vax’s wrist. The dwarf slowly turned to look at him and laughed, as Vax quickly pulled his hand away and Balgus’s fingers tightened on nothing. “Oh, I feel alive tonight!” Balgus cried, grinning crookedly over his shoulder at Vax. “Bring it, all of ya! I want to smash your face in.” A little bit of froth had formed on the corner of his mouth and dripped into his beard, flying from his lips as he spoke.

Somewhere further back within the fog, lost from view, Adra yelled out, “Stop this! I can’t even see. What did you do? Don’t destroy another table!” Her attempts to calm the situation fell on mostly deaf ears, however, as little seemed to change as she shouted at her patrons.

Vex watched the fuzzy form of her brother engage with Balgus and heard the dwarf’s challenge, then quickly told Keyleth, “Do some tricks! Dance around!” The Keyleth bear looked at her for a second and then grunted, pushing herself up onto her hind legs, her front paws clawing slowly at the fog in front of her. She let out a few loud bellows, gingerly turning and stepping around on her hind legs, front paws lifted as she clumsily danced.

Vex started clapping loudly and rhythmically, calling out to the crowd at large, “Everyone! Gather round and watch the amazing Trinket!”

As soon as Vex called out, Scanlan put the Trinket mouse in a pocket, pulled out his shawm, and started a jaunty, circus-like tune for Keyleth to dance to. Tiberius, watching the entire show from afar and through a cloud of fog, cast prestidigitation over the heads of the tavern’s patrons, creating bursts of colorful fireworks. Within the fog, they were just dull flashes of colored light and popping explosions, giving the entire area a far more mystical atmosphere.

While they started what was beginning to be an elaborate and very distracting show, Keyleth willed the fog away, clearing the inside of the tavern as quickly as she’d shrouded it. Vax used the opportunity to move away from Balgus and out of his striking range, while the fireworks became bright and visible, little trails of color falling away from each explosion and disappearing above everyone’s heads.

With amazing dexterity for a bear, Keyleth managed a full cartwheel, hitting against the edge of the ring but landing quite well. She got back up onto her back paws, dancing around on one, while Vex urged her on nearby and Scanlan’s music cut through the tavern’s noise.

Balgus watched the bear for a moment, and then a chuckle started in his chest, a grin spreading rapidly across his face, as he broke out into full blown laughter. He pointed at the bear as he laughed, doubling over and clutching at his stomach. Other dwarves joined in the laughter, enjoying the show, and the musicians that were already playing in the tavern joined with Scanlan’s music, the jaunty tune swelling within the establishment.

Vex snatched an empty cup from a nearby table and held it up, shouting, “Tips! Tips for the bear!” She slammed the cup down nearby, where the dwarves could easily access it and leave a few coins if they chose to.

Vax went straight for the bar, ducking and weaving around dwarves, many of whom pushed against him as they tried to get closer and see what was going on. Adra stood at the bar, looking out at the patrons with tense shoulders and nervously wringing her hands. Stepping up to her, Vax put a hand up and said, “I can fix this.”

“How? Do. Go,” Adra said tightly, gesturing for him to go out and do something. He barely got through saying he needed a large mug of ale before she had one ready and pressed into his hand. “Here, do it, go,” she said urgently, pushing at Vax’s arm and then returning to anxiously watching the dwarves before her.

Ale in hand, Vax hurried through the crowd again, back to Balgus. It was easier now that he was moving with the crowd, the dwarves all but pushing him ahead, and he got to Balgus quicker than he’d left. Balgus still stood in the middle of the ring, everyone else keeping their distance from him, his attention fixated on Keyleth. “Growl for me!” he told the bear. “Do a happy growl.” Balgus put his hands up with his fingers curled like claws and imitated a growl, which Keyleth repeated. The dwarf’s face lit up and he started laughing again, shouting out, “Aye, that’s a happy growl!” Keyleth continued her dance and growl, at this point trying to go between listening to Vex’s suggestions and listening to Balgus’s.

“Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve been outside,” Balgus sighed with a grin, a small tear forming at the corner of his eye. Whether it was from laughter or sudden emotion, no one was exactly sure. Vax stepped up to him and went to put an arm around the dwarf’s shoulders, but Balgus was once again on edge in an instant, reaching up to smack Vax’s arm away and spinning toward him with his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Vax held his free hand up in the air and offered the tankard of ale. “Take this, take this,” he said quickly, a small smile on his face. “You are an impressive specimen, my good man. I have never had a fight that amazing in at least...a week. That was something to see. Here, take this, and then after this one there’s three more,” Vax promised.

The grin returned to Balgus’s face, revealing gnarled yellow teeth, and he reached out to grab the offered ale. “See,” he said, pointing a finger at Vax. “Now  _ this _ is dwarven hospitality!” He took the drink from Vax’s hand and lifted it into the air, some of the ale splashing over the sides of the cup and over his arm. Balgus let out a hearty cheer, echoed by the surrounding dwarves, and took a drink as he clapped Vax on the shoulder. Ale in hand, Balgus wandered out of the ring, toward a table off to the side where he could continue drinking in peace.

“Maybe we should retire to our rooms,” Scanlan suggested slowly, looking around at the dwarves. The Trinket mouse in his pocket poked his head out and looked around with a series of confused squeaks.

“Can I take the mouse? Can I have Trinket?” Vex asked, holding her hands out, and Scanlan scooped the mouse out of his pocket quickly.

“Yes. Here. Weird mouse rat thing,” he said, dumping Trinket into Vex’s hands unceremoniously.

“Hi, Trinket,” Vex cooed, bringing him up close to her face and allowing him to sniff at her and nuzzle against her cheek. Grog came up behind her and started poking at the mouse, while Vex continued to speak to Trinket. “You’re so adorable, you little - don’t poke him,” she said to Grog, turning to try and put herself between him and Trinket.

Grabbing a cup off of a nearby table, Vax raised it up in the air and called out, “Dwarven compatriots! We could not have expected a better welcome here in Kraghammer. We’ll see you tomorrow night for round two. Thank you.”

Cheers started up again, this time led by the other members of Vox Machina before Vax even finished speaking. Balgus shouted over all of them, making himself heard as he growled to Vax, “Three more! You said three more.” The mug that had already been given to him sat empty before him, and the drunken droop of his eyelids was once again returning.

Laughing, Vax stepped up to the bar once more and said, “One, two, three, put ‘em in a row for this gentleman right here.” He pointed at Balgus, and Adra nodded quickly, giving Vax a quick, earnest thanks before gathering the drinks.

The party quickly made their way back up to their rooms. Keyleth lumbered out of sight of those in the tavern and squeezed her way into the hall before dropping her beast shape and going back to normal. The walkways were a little too narrow for a bear, and even getting out of sight had been a bit of a challenge. Vex remained within the tavern itself, carrying the polymorphed Trinket in her hands as she approached Adra.

“Excuse me,” she said, catching the dwarf’s attention. “Do you have a stable or anything?”

Adra looked at Vex in faint confusion and said slowly, “No stables in this establishment… We do have a downstairs storage area your bear could stay in.” She looked apologetic and Vex glanced down at Trinket, held in her cupped hands.

“What do you think, Trinket?” she asked the mouse, and he squeaked and chittered in response, nose wiggling as he sniffed the air. “Yeah, I think he’s okay with it. We’ll use that,” Vex said to Adra, and then she lowered her voice again to talk to Trinket. “If you find anything edible down there, you can eat it, it’s fine.”

“That’s not true,” Adra corrected hastily.

“Just kidding,” Vex sang to Trinket, smiling innocently at their dwarven host. Adra showed her where to go to get to the storage area, and Vex carried Trinket down to a decent-sized room with enough space to house a bear among the crates, barrels, shelves, chests, bags, and hanging utensils and herbs that filled half the room.

They barely got downstairs before the polymorph spell was dropped and Trinket exploded back into bear form, landing heavily on the ground. Vex jumped away from him as the tiny mouse grew very quickly in her hands, and Trinket stood in the middle of the storage room, sniffing at the air. He padded over to a partially open sack containing some kind of dried meat and starting pulling out pieces and devouring them. Vex glanced up the stairs to make sure no one saw him doing this, pat his back and told him good night, then hurried back upstairs to join her friends.

“Before we go to bed, we should turn in our comment cards for Belan,” Percy said once Vex was back with everyone else.

“Oh, yeah… That was a thing,” Vex said, rummaging in her pockets for the parchment she’d been handed earlier.

“I cannot stress how important this is,” Percy said, getting more than a couple amused looks that made him suspect the rest of the group was just humoring him and Keyleth. “We’re gonna also give him the few extras, so he can have more comments later.”

“You guys are so kind with those comment cards,” Scanlan said with a small smile and a faintly disbelieving expression on his face, passing over his own. Keyleth just grinned, pleased with the entire idea, and completely oblivious to the fact that Scanlan wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that he considered it a waste of time.

With the comment cards handed over and a bear fight avoided, the party retired to their rooms, still exhausted from travel and the problems they’d faced along the way and how busy they had been. No one was entirely sure if they woke up in the morning, per say, due to the nature of staying underground, but most everyone woke up around the same time, if nothing else.

As they had the day before, Vox Machina met up in one of the rooms to discuss their next course of action. “So are we going to the manor?” asked Scanlan, looking around at everyone.

“I say we have brunch, go to the manor -” Percy started, but he was interrupted by snickering or full blown laughter from most of his friends.

“ _ Brunch _ ,” Grog laughed, grabbing at his stomach and doubling over, while Vex leaned against him for support, shoulders shaking with her own quiet laughter.

“I want to have brunch,” Percy insisted, scanning the party for at least one person who would agree with him. Or at least think it wasn’t a ridiculous idea. While brunch wasn’t usual for them, everyone was acting like it was the most farfetched suggestion in the world. “I want a dwarven brunch.”

“Dwarven eggs are very good,” Keyleth agreed as the laughter died down, looking around at everyone with mild confusion. Percy smiled and nodded at her.

Dismissing the topic of brunch entirely, Tiberius said, “I think we should go to House Thunderbrand. I found it last night, and I tried to speak with someone there, but there were runes along the edge of the property that kept me from getting to the door. None of my spells worked against them - I tried mage hand and glacial blast and those didn’t work how I had planned - and then some of those lousy Carvers found me trying to talk to someone, and I don’t think they like me very much. But maybe we’d have more luck if you all came with me.”

“So you nearly got yourself killed,” Grog said flatly, rather unimpressed.

“I most certainly did not! I just couldn’t get in the door. They were rather rude,” Tiberius huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and narrowing his eyes at Grog.

“Why did you think that after the magic hand failed that the big thunder ice wave would work?” Keyleth asked incredulously.

“Well my thought was to cover the rune with ice and I’d merely step over it. I didn’t think it would  _ dissolve _ my ice,” Tiberius griped, arms slowly uncrossing as he started gesturing and speaking with his hands again. “I mean, I…” He huffed out a breath and threw a hand up in the air when Keyleth continued to stare at him.

“In his defense, there was only one way to find out,” Percy said.

“That’s true,” Keyleth allowed, nodding.

Tiberius nodded once to Percy as well and said, “A good sorcerer always tries all his tricks before he turns around, which is what I did. And I think we should go back there, because I feel that’s significant that I couldn’t get in so easily.”

“We will go back there,” Percy assured him. “I don’t think it’s the next order of business, but I think that - we’re not leaving this city without dealing with that.”

Grog interrupted and asked Percy, “Did we need to do something with the comment cards?”

“Did you not fill out a comment card?” Percy demanded, and Grog looked both taken aback and  confused.

“No, I did. But I only know like three letters, so…” he said slowly, his brow furrowed. “A, F...and A.”

“That’s okay,” Keyleth said cheerfully, patting him on the arm comfortingly.

“That sounds very positive, I think,” Percy agreed.

“It’s the thought that counts, Grog,” Keyleth added, smiling, and he returned the smile readily.

“I’m learning,” Grog said proudly, puffing out his chest.

“DId you put like a smiley face next to the A and F?” Vex asked, drawing a smiley face in the air with a finger.

Grog shook his head and said, in the same proud tone, “I just covered my hand in ink and stuck it on there.”

“That works,” Vex said, watching in amusement as he mimed covering his hand in ink and pressing it to a piece of paper.

“I think that went well,” Percy said mildly, taking Grog’s childishly written parchment and tucking it with the others he’d gathered the night before. He was planning to give them back once they went downstairs, since it had grown late by the time he’d collected them the night before.

Scanlan looked around at everyone and asked, “Shall we try and make our way to the manor, then?”

“The Greyspine Manor, with our cask of fancy ale?” Vex said with a grin, reaching out to pat the cask that Grog had set next to one of the beds.

“Let’s do it,” Scanlan declared, and the party left the tavern to enact their plan for the day. After having a dwarven brunch at Percy’s continued insistence and collecting Trinket from the storage area. It was a little tricky getting him up the stairs into the tavern proper, but they managed without too much issue, and they headed out. They tried to see if Pike was up for joining them, but Pike said she still was feeling off and apologized for her absence while also asking for a bit more time to recover, which they granted without argument.

Outside the tavern, Grog carried the blood wine with minimal trouble and the party made their way toward the residential district and Greyspine Manor, with the twins leading the way since they were the only ones who had visited the area before. On the way, Tiberius muttered a spell under his breath and suddenly his form shifted and shrank and warped until, within a second, he walked among them as a dwarf.

“You’re a dwarf,” Grog blurted in surprise, staring down at him with wide eyes.

Tiberius looked up at him and said, “Yes, I am.” Grog continued to stare as Tiberius’s normal blustery words came from the throat of this dwarf.

“You should’ve been a lady dwarf,” Scanlan said, looking over at Tiberius with a teasing smile.

“I will not do that again!” Tiberius barked, brandishing a finger at Scanlan.

“Oh, right. You did take it as a troll,” Grog said slowly and with a large grin, and Percy chuckled to himself at the memory.

“Almost!” Tiberius corrected strongly. “She shot off the penis.” He pointed to Vex, who glanced over her shoulder at those behind her and smiled, giving Tiberius a double thumbs up.

“Oh, yeah, that’s where the troll dick came from…” Grog mused.

Vax looked over his shoulder as well, eyebrow lifted in confusion, as he’d been focused on remembering the city layout in his head and hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation. “What is going on?” he asked slowly.

“Don’t you remember, Vax? I was almost raped by trolls!” Tiberius said, loudly enough to get the attention of a couple dwarves walking the streets, who gave the party concerned and offended looks before moving away very quickly. Vax grinned and lifted his hand at the dwarves as they left.

The twins continued to lead the way to the residential district, and upon getting close, recognized the guards stationed there as being from the group they had encountered the night before. Vex smiled at them, scanning their small group, but Thompson wasn’t amongst them this morning.

“Where’s Thompson?” she asked as they approached, the dwarves eyeing the group warily.

The dwarves pulled their attention away from the party and traded looks before one turned back to Vex and said, “He’s been given the day off.”

“Oh, really?” she said quietly, a little disappointed.

“As you can see,” Vax said, gesturing to the group behind them, “we brought one of your citizens to give us a tour of the city.” He pointed to Tiberius, small but visible in the middle of the group, and the dwarves followed Vax’s finger.

“Citizen, eh? Haven’t seen you around here. What’s your name?” one asked, narrowing his eyes.

Tiberius squared his shoulders and said, “My name is Tiberius Kraghammer.” Scanlan, standing next to him, stared at him strangely. The twins and Percy tried to hide their sudden laughter, and Keyleth shuffled aside and slowly covered her face with a hand.

“We’re in Kraghammer,” Scanlan muttered, and Tiberius stared at him oddly. Then his eyes went wide for a second as he realized his blunder.

“Stronghammer,” Tiberius corrected quickly, as the rest of the party fought to keep their composure.

The dwarves once again looked at each other then back to Tiberius, and the one who had been speaking asked, “So which is it? Kraghammer or...what was it?”

“I meant - I meant Stronghammer,” Tiberius said, waving a hand dismissively. “Kraghammer is my...father’s cousin’s side.”

“How drunk are you?” asked the Carver.

“I’ve been drinking since I’ve woken,” Tiberius said, jumping onto the excuse for his behavior quickly.

The Carver regarded him for a moment and then a small smile came to his face and he nodded. “All right, all right,” he said. “I haven’t seen you around, but obviously it’s a bit early to be  _ that _ fucked up.”

“I’m very depressed, you know,” Tiberius said, and when the Carvers looked back at the twins, Tiberius caught Scanlan’s eye and shrugged.

“So what’s your business?” the same Carver asked. “You’ve already seen the statue.”

“Yes, we saw the statue, but we wanted to get a better look at it,” Vex said enthusiastically, shuffling sideways a couple steps to put herself more between the Carvers and Tiberius. “So we brought this gift for the Greyspines, and we wanted to present it to them.” She gestured behind her, to the barrel Grog held in his arms, and he held it up a little bit with a grin.

The two nearest Carvers stepped forward to look at it, Grog holding it out so they could better see it, and then they pulled away with looks of awe, envy, and extreme interest. One of them reached up to touch it but pulled his hand back before his fingers met the wood, his hand coming to his mouth as he stared at the wine. “Can we - tell you what,” he said quietly to Vex, pulling his eyes away from the cask with visible effort. “If you let us taste a bit of that, we’ll let you go.” A thin smile was visible beneath the dwarf’s beard, and his attention kept flicking between the cask and Vex eagerly.

Percy sucked in a breath through his teeth, unsure, but Tiberius spoke up before anyone else could. “Oh, I mean, I was drinking a lot of it. Sure!” he said. Scanlan kicked at his leg to get him to shut up.

“I mean, a  _ thimble _ of it, cause if any of it goes missing…” Vex said, glancing around at the barrel. A barrel that was currently sealed and without a spigot to pour from. Turning back to the dwarves, Vex said, “Here’s the thing. If we open it, it’ll kind of ruin the barrel. Right?”

The Carver looked thoughtful, stroking his beard slowly, and he muttered, “That’s right…”

“So maybe...we can  _ save _ you a bottle of it when we open it inside,” Vex offered. “And we’ll be able to give it to you later.”

The four Carvers looked at each other and seemed to come to an unspoken agreement. The leader of their group nodded once decisively and said quietly, “If you can save enough for all four of us, please do. Bring it back. We look forward to it.” Tiberius started to speak and was quickly shushed by the Carver, who barely even glanced in his direction. “We’ll be waiting. If you don’t show with the drink, we’ll go right to our supervisor.”

“Here’s the thing,” Vex started, and the Carver leaned back with his arms crossed and another nod to punctuate his statement. The other dwarves copied the gesture. “Yeah, yeah, keep nodding. Here’s the thing. I don’t know if I can save four bottles worth. But I’ll save as much as I can.”

“On our...father’s good name,” Vax said, pausing briefly as he realized that might not actually mean anything in Kraghammer, but he pushed on regardless, “we will bring you some of this. That is a promise.” He shrugged off his sister’s muttered reminder that the dwarves didn’t know who the twins were or who their father was, and tried to ignore Scanlan shaking his head, only having eyes for the dwarves before them.

“It’s a good name,” Grog agreed as the Carver’s exchanged another, contemplative look.

“Fine. But we’ll be waiting,” the speaker for the Carvers promised. He and each of his companions looked eager and hopeful and were trying to hide it, with poor results.

The four dwarves parted and moved out of the party’s way, as Vox Machina quickly went past the small checkpoint and into the residential district proper. The twins maintained the lead, turning down roads that cut into the side of the cavern and away from the central ring of Kraghammer. It was quite easy to see the manor when they reached that part of the district, the large, grand building commanding attention even from where it was recessed in the back portions of the city.

The party passed through the gate of the building without issue, crossing the very large expanse between the gate and the front door unmolested. The door itself was tall, about ten feet from base to top, and it didn’t have a visible handle.

Vex lifted a hand to knock and Tiberius said quickly, “Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let’s not knock on anything. Things shock you here.” Vex stared at him dryly and went to bring her hand down on the door anyway, until Percy stepped up next to her and grabbed a chain that was threaded through a hole in the stone wall. He pulled it sharply and a thud came from inside, quick and loud and forceful.

“Percy, can I try?” Keyleth asked with a child-like smile on her face.

“If you must, yes,” Percy sighed, handing her the chain and stepping back. It was a heavier chain than expected, and she planted her feet as she pulled down on it once. The loud thud reverberated through the house again.

“Let’s hold off for now,” Vex suggested, lowering her hand.

“I just wanted to do that once,” Keyleth said cheerfully, gently releasing the chain and letting it rest against the stone again.

“Should we ding dong ditch?” Scanlan asked, watching the door.

Vax grinned but suggested, “Scanlan, perhaps a little ditty on the strings would help ease our introduction.” Scanlan was happy to oblige, pulling out a small string instrument and starting a friendly tune that filled the air.

Only a handful of seconds passed before there was a quieter thump from within, against the doors themselves, and one of the doors opened. A dwarf with long, grey hair pulled into a tight ponytail stepped out before them. Unlike others of his race they had seen, his beard was trimmed short and proper, and he wore long, dark robes. He frowned at the group, attention lingering briefly on Trinket in the back, and asked in a quiet, faintly raspy voice, “Can I help you?”

“Uh, yes,” Percy said, stepping forward between the twins with a hand outstretched. “Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III.”

“You can call him Percy,” Tiberius supplied when the dwarf seemed caught off guard.

“You can simply call me Percy, thank you,” Percy continued, lowering his hand when it was clear that it wasn’t being accepted. “We’re here to discuss some business with Lord Greyspine, and we have of course brought gifts and our charming company.”

“As well as our dwarven compatriot, who introduced us,” Vax said, pointing to Tiberius once more.

“Yes, I’m quite drunk right now,” Tiberius declared, earning himself an odd look from the dwarf.

Addressing the party as a whole, the dwarf asked, “Which lord are you looking for?”

“Actually, Nostoc,” Vex said.

“Is he the nice one?” Tiberius asked over her. “I would like the nice one.” Scanlan sighed, his music fading to nothing as he put a hand to his face and shook his head. Though if nothing else, the story of Tiberius being drunk seemed far more believable the longer he spoke.

The dwarf stared at him again for a moment and then said, “Nostoc, I’m afraid, is currently working at the quarry, if that’s who you’re looking for.”

“Is Gradem here…?” Scanlan tried, and the dwarf turned his stare to the gnome.

“Gradem is not taking visitors,” he said coolly.

Percy shook his head and said, “That’s a shame, we brought this...half barrel of ale right here.”

“And some very, very attractive mining contracts,” Scanlan said, cutting over Percy’s words. “But if there’s no one here to talk about them, then…” He trailed off and shrugged, tucking away his instrument.

“If you have mining contacts, you’re going to want to go ahead and go to the quarry,” the dwarf said. “You’re going to want to talk to Nostoc, he’s the one that runs the quarry. As far as the Ironkeeper himself, I mean no offense, but only official political business.”

“Of course,” Vex said amiably.

“Well this is definitely official political business,” Percy said at roughly the same time. “And I will also say, can you direct us toward the quarry, we are new in town.”

The dwarf gave Percy a look that clearly said that was an understatement and said, “Obviously. Have you not shown them where the quarry is, friend?” The question was directed at Tiberius, who decided to just continue with the story he’d been using.

“I honestly have no idea what’s been going on,” Tiberius said.

“He’s been drinking since very early this morning,” Percy said quickly at the dwarf’s concerned and faintly amazed look.

“He’s on vacation. You’ll have to excuse him,” Keyleth added, and the dwarf’s look slowly turned more judgmental as he continued to stare at Tiberius.

“I will say, I’m having a wonderful time,” Tiberius said cheerfully.

“You know, friends are in town, he’s showing us around, he’s…” Keyleth said, trailing off awkwardly as she tried to come up with more excuses on the spot.

Percy interrupted quickly, trying to derail the conversation away from Tiberius, and asked the dwarf, “What was your name again?”

“My name is Magrim,” the dwarf said levelly, finally looking away from Tiberius to address Percy. “I am a servant of the Ironkeeper himself.”

“Magrim, of course you’re the servant, you’re filled with poise and sophistication and of course, above all, protocol,” Percy said rather quickly. “I would not wish you to break protocol, which is why just simple directions for those of us wishing to do some official business, you’ll be right on your way, and your house will return to order.”

Magrim eyed Percy and then slowly nodded. “Right. Well, the Ironkeeper is not open to business except by preapproved political understanding,” he said slowly, spacing out each word deliberately to get his message across. “You don’t have a preapproved meeting put within a ledger, you won’t be seen.”

“Of course not,” Vex said amiably. “For the mining contracts, however, when we need to speak to Nostoc, is there any way… I hear it’s very hard to get down into the mines, they’re all guarded, right? That’s why we came to speak to you.” She gestured to the house as a whole, smiling apologetically.

Magrim leaned to the side to look at the cask of wine Grog held in his arms, and then shifted back to continue the conversation. “To get to the mines, you just have to go to one of the platforms, the chain platforms, at the edge of town, that’ll bring you to the base area. Find your way to the mines there,” he advised, pointing off in the direction they had come. “That should be enough to get Nostoc’s attention,” he continued, pointing to the cask. “The rest is up to you.”

“Lovely,” Vex muttered.

“One moment, before we adjourn,” Scanlan said, holding up a hand and gaining Magrim’s attention. Scanlan grinned innocently and gestured for Vex to come down to his level, whispering to her when she knelt down. “Do we want to try and get into this place, or are we just gonna go to the mines?”

“Maybe we should just talk to Nostoc first,” Vex whispered back. Magrim watched their quiet conversation with growing, if well hidden, impatience.

“And just ditch this place?” Scanlan asked, looking from Vex to the building, and she fought not to turn around and follow his gaze.

“Well, we’re trying to get to the mines, essentially, so…” Vex pointed out.

Vax reached out and tapped her shoulder and muttered, “I think he’s still listening.” He nodded to Magrim, who quietly observed the group, and Vex stood back up with a smile.

“Magrim, you’ve been wonderful. Thank you so much,” Vex said, earning a curious and faintly suspicious look from the servant. “We plan on keeping some of this ale and bringing it back to the household, would you like some when we open the cask?”

Magrim looked at the cask and then slowly and deliberately back to Vex, and said carefully, “I would not turn down a sip or two.”

“Lovely,” Vex said. “We’ll be sure to save you a small bottle.” The conversation had Magrim’s attention, even if it was tenuous, and while he was focused elsewhere, Scanlan whispered a quick incantation and then vanished from view. Moving quickly and quietly past Vex and Percy standing closest to the doorway, Scanlan slipped around Magrim and into the house itself, moving without thinking.

“So, is there anything else?” Magrim asked.

“I believe it is all of our business,” Vex said slowly, glancing back and noticing Scanlan’s absence. Though suspicion rose up immediately, Vex worked to not let any of it or her surprise show, not wanting to attract Magrim’s attention to the fact that they were a person short.

Magrim looked around at the party and nodded once, saying, “Well. Good day.” With that, he stepped back into the house and closed the door with a dull boom. Vox Machina stood outside on the doorstep, while Scanlan stood only a foot or two away from Magrim. He looked around the foyer and at the closed door with shock, confusion, and feeling very lost.

The foyer itself had a dark, velvet red carpet covering the black and gold marble floor. Tapestries decorated the walls, and small wooden end tables were set against the wall along the entryway. They held sculptures, small vases, plants, and expensive decorative knickknacks of all kinds. There were two closed doors on each side of the entryway, and a staircase that led up to the second floor.

“What are you doing, Scanlan?” Tiberius demanded through the enchanted earrings, his voice forcing its way into Scanlan’s head. Perfectly clear and rather irate. “ _ What are you doing?” _

“I don’t know. Uh...give me twenty minutes,” Scanlan said nervously as he clutched his own earring, willing the magic to hold and carry his own message back.

On the other side of the door, Vex looked at the rest of the group and said, “Twenty minutes. That’s okay. Let’s all step  _ away _ from the house.” She ushered them through the rocky yard and outside the gate in the wall, and Keyleth glanced back toward the house.

“Does he...ask him if he needs assistance or like a diversion,” Keyleth said to Tiberius. Without an earring of her own, she couldn’t convey the message herself, but Tiberius just shrugged, not sure what they could do to help.

Magrim looked at the closed door and brushed his hands together as if clearing dirt off of them, turning away with a sigh. “Fucking foreigners,” he muttered to himself, wandering off down the hall. Scanlan followed behind toward what appeared to be the kitchen, and as he started moving, a little bit of gas escaped him.

At the small sound, Magrim stopped and turned to look behind him. Scanlan froze, grateful for his invisibility as the dwarf looked through where he stood. Magrim rubbed at his stomach, hummed quietly to himself, and kept walking without suspicion.

Scanlan broke away from Magrim when the dwarf stepped into the kitchen, hoping to explore the property quickly and find one of the other lords Greyspine. He wandered through a number of rooms in quiet search, and his friends remained silent through the earring. Scanlan found a music room, full of instruments of dwarven make, some of them things Scanlan had merely heard about and others he was more familiar with, including a shawm like his own.

As he moved out of the music room, Tiberius’s voice once again came through the earring. “Scanlan, look for paperwork of some kind,” he said.

“Great. Okay,” Scanlan whispered back. He wasn’t sure what kind of paperwork Tiberius wanted to find, and was sure he’d find more than enough paper lying around, but it was added to the list of things he was looking around for as he continued. A lot of the doors he came to were locked with hefty, well-made locks that Scanlan decided he wasn’t even going to attempt to pick just yet. Besides, Vax was the only one with the proper tools for such a thing, and Vax was outside.

His exploration of the bottom floor complete, Scanlan made his way upstairs and to a long hallway that led to what seemed to be a throne room. It was still under construction, building materials stacked along the walls, rough scaffolding built up along the back, all of it carved further back into the mountain itself and the black and gold marble laid out atop the regular stone. The construction appeared to be well underway, the room mostly finished, but still a work in progress.

In the center of the room sat a raised dais with steps leading up to it, and it held a great, dark metal throne that matched with the rest of the dark theme of Greyspine Manor. Magically flickering and glowing lanterns were suspended on either side of the room, providing light to see by, similar in their glow to the red stones that lit the city itself. A pair of dwarves were within, working on carving out and adding design and texture to the stone, their attention focused solely on the intricate patterns they were creating.

“Dammit, Scanlan, what are you doing? Get out of there,” Tiberius barked impatiently, his voice once again ringing in Scanlan’s head. Scanlan didn’t grace him with a response, surveying the addition and choosing instead to listen to the quiet tapping and chiseling that echoed through the room.

Far more calmly in comparison, Vax chimed in, “Uh, Scanlan. What exactly is the purpose of this little escapade, and will it be ending shortly?”

“Just...trust me,” Scanlan said as he moved away from the working dwarves, keeping his voice low. “That I have no idea what I’m doing.” That being said, Scanlan made his way back downstairs to one of the locked doors. Sure, it looked difficult and he didn’t have Vax’s tools, but he couldn’t just leave without at least trying. Locked doors normally hid important things, and it might give his trip a real reason. And no one had to know if he screwed it up.

Pulling a stray piece of wire from his pocket, Scanlan bent and twisted it into some semblance of what Vax’s lock picks looked like. He put it into the lock and started wiggling it around, feeling bits and pieces, probably the tumblers, move under the crude pick. For a good minute, Scanlan worked at it, trying to just shove the bent end of the wire up toward the tumblers and hoping something would happen.

There was a quiet  _ tink _ sound and Scanlan looked at the lock excitedly, sure he’d actually managed to do it. Instead, all he had was half a piece of wire, with the other somewhere in the inner workings of the lock, the end snapped clean off. Scanlan looked at the lock and quickly put the wire away, moving away from the door, which would probably now be considerably harder for anyone to open even with a key, with the rogue piece of metal inside.

Since Scanlan didn’t know what else he could do inside, he hurried back to the front door, closed and likely quite heavy. He glanced around quickly to make sure he was alone, dropped his invisibility, and cast dimension door. A small, purple doorway of arcane energy opened before him and Scanlan stepped through, exiting from a matching door outside the manor. The door snapped closed behind him silently, disappearing completely, and he hurried across the open expanse of yard to meet the rest of the party.

Everyone perked up as soon as he came into sight, though not all of them looked entirely pleased by his appearance. Or maybe they just weren’t pleased by his idea of exploration. Regardless, Scanlan ignored anything they were going to say and blurted, “It was crazy in there! People were farting  _ everywhere _ . It was not me.”

“Really, Scanlan,” Tiberius said dryly.

“They’re building a throne room,” Scanlan continued without acknowledging Tiberius. “There were some locked doors.  _ Man _ I wish you could’ve been there. It was exciting but ultimately pointless, so let’s go down to the mines.”

Vex started laughing, covering her face with her hands, and Keyleth chuckled. Vax put up his hands and said gently, “I’d like to stress again that none of these dwarves are our enemies. At all. We just want to go have some words with Greyspine…”

“And we do not have our healer, at present,” Grog added.

Scanlan shrugged them off and said, “Let’s make our way to the mines, shall we?” He started down the road toward the center ring of Kraghammer, leaving everyone else little choice but to follow.

“Let’s go get this drunk dwarf,” Vax agreed, and then paused at his sister’s teasing grin, looking up thoughtfully. “Dwarf drunk,” he corrected slowly and deliberately, and Vex’s grin didn’t fade as she patted him on the shoulder.


	3. Nagas in the Mines

Vox Machina made their way to the edge of the central ring. Close to the edge, it was easy to make out the stairs carved into the side that spiraled downward, and there were also elevators that one could take all the way to the bottom. A pair of Carvers guarded the elevator, and it didn’t take much for the party to get the Carvers to let them go down. The Carvers themselves didn’t look overly impressed by the group or thrilled by their expedition, even when Vex made a point of showing off the cask of wine that Grog carried, but they operated the elevator without argument.

Going down on the elevator, which a Carver operated with a chained pulley system, the red stone that lit the city was apparent less and less the further down they went. Instead, torches were set into the walls at regular intervals, held by sconces driven into the stone. The red stone itself seemed to grow dimmer the further down they went, its glow slowly fading until it was almost gone entirely.

After a minute, the elevator hit against the bottommost part of the city, the impact harsh and jarring and causing anyone who wasn’t a Carver or a four-legged animal to stagger and nearly lose their balance. The Carver seemed entirely unaffected, barely moving except for a slight smirk that appeared behind his beard.

Before the party were a collection of buildings in the center of the lower layer of the city, the most prominent of which was a giant domed temple made of gold and bronze. It sat in the absolute center, and its multiple doorways were currently closed and unguarded. It was a building they’d noticed from above the day before, far larger and grander than an aerial view would suggest. Off to one side was a sizable foundry. Smoke rose from it and into a giant metal funnel that led up and disappeared into the stone. As they wandered into the lower portion of the city, they noticed that part of it appeared to have been strip mined, the stone carved out and pulled away and more being dug into it.

Collectively deciding that was the best option for finding the quarry, the party continued to follow the strip mined sections, eventually coming to the edge of the quarry. There, they were faced with three pits that went steeply downward. The quarry seemed to hold a similar shape to the sections of the city they had passed through already, and it wasn’t unlikely that this would eventually become city expansion in the future, once the mines were run down.

Buildings sat along the edge of the quarry, sturdy dwarven buildings carved from stone and partially set into the wall of the cavern itself. The largest of these buildings was made of red and black material that gave it a similar appearance to oxidized iron, and it had a significant number of guards around it. Within the quarry itself, multiple tunnels branched off the central hole like the spokes of a giant wheel, going further into the mountains.

“Wait, before we go,” Keyleth said, putting an arm out to stop Vex as she started to lead the group toward the collection of guards in front of the largest building. Keyleth stepped up to Grog and put her hands up near the cask of wine in his arms. A gentle green energy surrounded her hands and fingertips as she passed them over the cask. Flowers were created from nowhere, twisting and weaving their way around the cask. The wood itself became brighter, seemingly more healthy and colorful, and she added a bow to it for effect.

“You made it into a fruit basket,” Percy commented as she stepped back with a proud smile on her face.

“No! It looks attractive now,” Keyleth insisted.

“It looks like a fruit basket,” Percy maintained, and she huffed, frowning at him.

“It does not look like a fruit basket!” Keyleth said. “It’s not ostentatious.”

“It’s the ale of the month club,” Percy said, continuing to stare at the barrel, and Keyleth sighed heavily.

Vex cut in and said, “In her defense, they probably don’t see flowers that often.”

“This is true,” Percy allowed. “That is very fair.”

While they argued about the appearance of the cask, Tiberius dropped his spell, reverting back to his tall, tailed, and red-scaled dragonborn form. Once the argument died down, Vex once again took the lead and they approached the guards around the building, now with a beautified cask of fine wine.

The dwarves, eight armored Carvers, seemed rather tired and distracted, not as interested in the party as Vox Machina may have expected. One at the far end kept leaning over to look down into the quarry, and though some seemed more alert than others, none of them were giving any one thing their full attention.

Vex zeroed in on the dwarf she took to be the newest, one of the ones at the far end. He had a shaved head and a small beard that was slowly being grown out; currently it was little more than a bushy tuft of hair on his chin that sported a few tiny braids. He looked down at the quarry and then up again, catching sight of the party and looking at them with interest.

As they approached, Vex called out a greeting to the Carvers as a whole, echoed by some of her friends who chose to stay behind her and let her do the talking. The Carvers turned their attention to the party in surprise at Vex’s voice, and Vex smiled at the Carver with the shaved head, holding his gaze for a moment. The moment was quickly broken when her brother reached up, put a hand between her shoulderblades, and pushed her toward the dwarves. She frowned at him over her shoulder, received a smile in return, and then turned her attention back to the Carvers.

“What’s your business?” one of them asked.

“Oh, yes, well, we’re here to speak with Nostoc,” Vex said. “We brought a gift for him that’s quite remarkable, actually.” She gestured to the barrel Grog held and the dwarves shifted closer, each of them looking at it with interest, some expressions more concealed than others. The dwarves appeared wary of Grog, not wanting to get too close, but after they turned their attention away from him and to the wine, their nervousness shifted to awe and greed.

“Right? It’s the shit,” Grog said, shifting the barrel so he held it in one arm and pointing to it with his free hand.

“I’ve only heard of that,” the same dwarf said with poorly concealed excitement. “I’ve not seen anyone actually drink it. There’s been long standing rumors that this even existed.”

“It exists,” Vex said with a growing grin.

“And it’s for Nostoc,” Scanlan reminded them gently.

Looking between the barrel and Vex, the dwarf said, “This is a Balgus original? Signed by himself, I see, by the burned and brazened wood… Um, I’ll go talk to him!” The dwarf disappeared into the building, closing the door behind him, and leaving his fellows outside to keep an eye on the group. They did so readily, watching each member of Vox Machina carefully while also occasionally sneaking glances toward the cask.

A couple minutes passed before the first Carver returned. “Nostoc will see you briefly,” he informed them. “But you best bring the gift. I think that’s what’s holding his interest. Inside, please.”

With him and one other guard flanking them, the party was let into the building itself. In the time they had been waiting, Vex had been convinced to leave Trinket outside since there might not be enough room for him, and Trinket moaned and whined but stayed outside with the Carvers who all looked a little more nervous to be left with the armored bear.

A series of long hallways branched from the entryway, leading further into a building that seemed larger than its exterior would lead one to believe. A persistent smell of soot lingered inside, mingling with stone dust and creating a biting scent that scratched at their noses. The torches in their wall sconces gave enough light to see the gently swirling and shifting haze of dust and ash that created the smell and coated the interior in a fine layer of powder.

They went down the main hall, which curved slightly with its shape and build, and ended in a dwarven study. Shelves of books lined the walls, their leather spines well worn and dyed different colors, most of them muted, and the runes of the dwarven alphabet were carved into the sides. Ledgers and papers were stacked up on a large desk, and a dwarf sat in the center of it all.

This dwarf had fiery red hair, cut very short on top with a very long, straight beard, unadorned with any braids or decorations. Overall, he was clean-cut, and his eyes were dark and harsh as the party entered, boring into each person that he looked at. From first appearances alone, it was clear why Nostoc Greyspine was not considered one of the friendliest in the family.

As they entered, Nostoc rested his elbows on the edge of the desk and clasped his hands together, leaning forward toward them. “Okay,” he said, his voice low and raspy, potentially from the dust that permeated the air and the mine itself. “You brought me a drink. You have my attention. What brings you to the mines?” As he spoke, Nostoc looked slowly between each member of the party, his gaze hard and piercing as he examined each person.

“Several things, actually,” Percy said into the silence that was starting to stretch to an awkward length, as those in the party struggled to remember why exactly they had come when faced with Nostoc’s stare. Nostoc’s attention shifted to him, and Percy continued, “Several things bring us to the mine. My name, of course, is Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III.”

“You can call him Percy,” Tiberius and Scanlan interrupted at the same time. The faintest of smiles flickered cross Percy’s face and he nodded.

Nostoc raised a finger, effectively silencing the group with the small gesture, and said, “You have not paid for your pleasantries yet.”

“Oh, of course, of course,” Vex said pleasantly. “Grog, if you would?” Grog carried the cask over to the desk, holding it in one arm as he produced a tap from the bag of holding. He jammed the tap into the wood with minimal effort, and as he did so, Nostoc produced a goblet from beneath his desk.

Grog poured the wine into the goblet as Nostoc watch. “Top it off,” he said, and Grog did so, filling the goblet to the brim. “Put it beside the desk.” Again, Grog did as asked, putting the cask down heavily as Nostoc took a sip.

“Wait, Mr. Greyspine,” Scanlan started, but Nostoc put a finger up to silence him again, still drinking heavily from his goblet.

Nostoc lowered the goblet after a moment, smacking his lips quietly and savoring the flavor. He sat back in his seat, contented, and Vex asked, “Is it as amazing as we’ve heard?”

“It’s pretty fucking good,” Nostoc breathed, pleased, and Vex laughed. He took another long drink as silence descended on the group again, and a few members exchanged awkward glances, not sure if they should try speaking up. It was clear that Nostoc was trying to make a point by making them wait and watch him drink the wine they’d brought, and he was trying to put himself above them with the display.

They waited as he finished off the goblet and stowed it back under the desk, and then Nostoc slowly sat back up, elbows resting on the surface of the desk and hands clasped before him. “Right. So. Where were we?” he asked, and his pleasantness almost seemed forced as he looked around at the group.

“We were here to call upon your expertise,” Percy said, continuing as if there had never been an interruption, his voice level and polite. “We imagine that we are not the first strangers to Kraghammer to come through…”

“In the last few weeks,” Vex offered.

“In the last few weeks,” Percy agreed. “We believe one of our compatriots had some dealings with you, perhaps not as...pleasant as the dealings we are hoping to have.”

“A lady, in fact,” Scanlan said.

“A halfling,” Vex added.

Nostoc lifted and eyebrow and nodded. “Aye, I know the one you speak,” he said slowly, and from the sound of things, he didn’t seem pleased to know it. “She’s a strong headed one, that one. She stepped on a few toes around this place.”

“Oh, is she clumsy?” Tiberius asked with innocent sincerity that made his friend either quickly hide their amusement or shoot him quick looks that clearly said to shut up. Nostoc paused, staring at the dragonborn.

“You could say that, aye,” he allowed. Tiberius hummed and nodded, and Nostoc pressed on, “You say you are compatriots of hers.”

“We’re here to mend any broken bridges, so to speak,” Percy said, glancing at Tiberius to make sure the dragonborn wasn’t going to make some kind of quip in response to that as well.

“Or broken toes,” Keyleth said in place of Tiberius. “If you will.”

Ignoring Keyleth entirely, Nostoc continued to address Percy, and said, “Good. She certainly left a mess in her wake. There’s a strange vision quest she kept talking about, brought her into atmospheres...portions of this city, portions of my business, that she has no right trespassing on.” His voice was strong, if not loud, and he jabbed a finger down onto the surface of the desk as he spoke.

Nostoc raised a hand and started ticking off fingers as he continued. “She went against Carver rules. She broke away from partial arrest. She went screaming down into the caverns of our mine without my permission, blades drawn, on some crazed suicide mission.” He glowered at even the mention of what had transpired.

“You know what,” Vex said, pulling his attention away from Percy. “We’ll go after her. We’ll bring her out. We’ll get her out of your mines.”

“Great,” Nostoc said. “I’d like that, actually.”

“And we’d be happy to clear out anything...unpleasant that we happen to find in there in the meantime,” Percy added.

“How does she look?” Tiberius asked suddenly, lifting his eyebrows expectantly and gaining more than a few odd looks in return.

Brows furrowed at the question, Nostoc answered, “Small and angry.” Tiberius nodded, as if that was what he was expecting to hear, but Nostoc continued after a pause. “Though she seemed to have some weight to her. She was a strong lass.”

“So not a looker, is what you’re saying,” Tiberius said mildly.

Nostoc tilted his head slowly in confusion and said, “I...I would not discuss the physical appeals of a halfling.”

“That’s not very nice,” Keyleth told Tiberius softly.

Vex jumped in, directing the conversation away from its sudden turn, and asked, “How much will this, um…this task be worth to you? Obviously we’re doing you quite a favor, and we brought you quite a gift.” She looked at Nostoc expectantly, meeting his steely and unimpressed gaze with a small smile of her own.

“This cost us a thousand gold,” Scanlan said, nodding pointedly to the tapped cask beside Nostoc’s desk.

“Well, obviously, this lass means a lot to you, doesn’t she?” Nostoc asked Scanlan.

“No, no, no,” Vex said quickly as Scanlan tried not to squirm under Nostoc’s gaze. When the dwarf looked away, Scanlan deflated slightly with a breath of relief. “But I know she’s probably wreaking havoc on your mines.”

“We’ve come to correct the wrongs that she’s done and to bring her home,” Vax said.

“It also sounds like there’s some other terrible things wreaking havoc on your mines?” Keyleth added mildly, and Nostoc’s gaze darkened further.

“There’s nothing going on. We’re fine,” he said coolly. “We have everything under control. We don’t need your help for that. Now, if you want to find your friend, go find her. If she’s still alive. If not, take her corpse back, and leave.”

Percy put up a hand and said, “It’s not help, sir. We’re simply respecting you as a businessman. And as a businessman, I’m sure that you would disagree with unceremonious charity, whether it would be to give it or receive it. We are making sure that our dealings with you are fair and balanced.”

“I appreciate your offering,” Nostoc said. With a small gesture to the cask, he continued, “You’ve bought your time. Now, if you’re here to go find your friend, I’ll let you pass. You may pass into the mine,  _ but… _ ” He turned his gaze on Vax, and though his words still seemed to include the group at large, he had attention only for the half-elf. “If at any moment you cross over into any sort of thieving bullshit, I recommend that you fall down the same path your friend did and get killed real quick.”

Vax nodded and smiled as innocently as he knew how, and Nostoc’s gaze lingered on him for a moment before he looked away. Giving every member in the group a stern look, Nostoc warned, “I don’t take kindly to those who cross my business.”

“I doubt we could find anything of more value than what we’ve already brought you,” Percy said.

“We are here to right wrongs,” Vax repeated. “And I promise you, our business is finding her and then we’ll return home.”

“Then go,” Nostoc said, gesturing to the door dismissively.

Muttering under her breath, Vex asked, “Is that our business?”

Grog nodded and said, “Yeah. We’re here to right wrongs and right lefts.” Nostoc tilted his head and lifted an eyebrow, caught off guard by the comment.

“And write comment cards,” Percy added, and Nostoc included him in the odd, confused look he was giving Grog.

“Wait, before we dive into this mountain,” Keyleth said. “I mean, we know there’s like ghouls and...god knows what else down there. Shouldn’t we find out?”

“Yes, we should,” Tiberius grumbled, growing impatient standing in the middle of the office. “Maybe some arcane house could tell us how to deal with these things.”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” Vex said quickly, offering Nostoc an apologetic smile. The dwarf himself watched the group impatiently and with visibly growing irritation. “Do we have permission to enter the mine within the next few days? Obviously we might need to be prepared.”

“Yes, do we have, like, badges?” Tiberius asked, a sudden energy renewed to the dragonborn upon getting some response about going to House Thunderbrand that could be construed as positive. “Like we wear them over… So they know…” His words trailed off into a few unintelligible sounds and then stopped as Nostoc’s dark gaze bored into him.

“I will talk to the men,” Nostoc said coolly. “They’ll let you down. If you come back, good on you. But, I think our business here is done.”

“Very good,” Tiberius said. At almost the same time, there was a muffled metallic sound from within the quarry, the urgent ringing of a bell. Nostoc sat up straighter, tilting his head to better hear the sound, and he said to the group quickly, “Our business here is done. Please, shove off.” He nodded to the two guards that had followed the group inside, and they gestured for the party to follow them out.

While Nostoc was preoccupied with the bell and urging everyone out, Vax pulled a flask from his belt and slipped over to the cas, trying to quickly and quietly take a small amount of the wine as they’d promised multiple people already. Not expecting Nostoc to brush off the new situation so quickly, Vax barely had anything in the flask before he heard Nostoc, loudly and pointedly, clear his throat. With a sheepish smile, Vax met the dwarf’s glare.

Vex, catching on to the attempt a little too late, suddenly cried out, “Oh, ow, my ankle! Ow…” She grabbed at her ankle, putting a hand on Percy’s shoulder to stabilize her as she balanced on one foot. “Oh, it hurts so bad…”

Nostoc slowly looked from Vax to Vex, then he sighed and slowly brought a hand up to his forehead. Meanwhile, Vax snagged Nostoc’s goblet, set it on his desk, and poured what little was in the flask into the goblet. He stepped back and said apologetically, “In my kingdom, when a deal is set, we drink together. And I would like not much, but to just pour us all a drink in agreeance. Now surely this cask is week’s worth of drink -”

“Get. Out. Of my. Office,” Nostoc growled through clenched teeth, glaring darkly at Vax.

“I can see that it’s a cultural difference, my apologies,” Vax said with a placating smile.

Tiberius grabbed at his earring, turning his face away from Nostoc, and grumbled, “What are you doing? Stop it! Let’s just go.”

More bells started to ring, joining the first in a discordant collection of sound that grew louder as more bells were added. The guards at the door looked around nervously, fidgeting in place, and they gestured quickly for the group to follow them out. With Nostoc’s glare burning into their backs, they did so with no additional complaints.

Once they stepped outside, they were met with the loud clanging of metal on metal as the bells were rung, the sound echoing many times over through the cave. Shouts rose up from the quarry below, and anyone nearby hurried past. Trinket, waiting outside, lumbered up to Vex with a low, nervous rumble at the sudden change in atmosphere.

Vex pat Trinket comfortingly and leaned down to one of the accompanying dwarves, asking, “What is that bell for?”

“Something’s flushing out of the quarry,” the dwarf responded, most of his attention focused on the pit that was the quarry.

“Flushing? What does that mean? Like, coming up?” Vex asked.

“We don’t know,” the dwarf said, his words strained and anxious. Around them, some of the guards from in front of the building started down one of the tracks into the quarry, weapons at the ready. The Carvers that had let the party outside followed with only the slightest of urges from Vox Machina, who were quick to follow. As they moved the dwarf continued speaking.

“We’ve had quite a few things come through these past few weeks,” he said to Vex, trailing behind his fellows but moving quickly, surprisingly so for someone of his stature.

“Like what?” Vex asked eagerly.

The dwarf paused in his speech long enough to gulp, eyes wide and nervous. “Things I can’t describe,” he said.

“Well we can certainly help. Lead on,” Percy said, and the dwarf nodded, picking up his pace to keep up with the other dwarves as they pushed downward into the quarry.

From about halfway down, the group could see dwarves rushing out from one of the largest tunnels that branched off from the central area. They were injured and terrified, moving as quickly as they could. Most were unarmed, and one had blood dripping down his face and into his beard. Another had a weapon, a sturdy pickaxe, but it dangled uselessly at his side. It was surprising enough that he still held it, as he was limping heavily and blood spotted his leg, while more ran from a wound in his arm that he clutched at desperately.

Behind them were small, green creatures that moved just as quickly as the dwarves. A horde of goblins rushed out of the tunnels, their greenish skin apparently unmarred by injuries, spears and javelins held in their small hands, their attention seemingly focused on the dwarves before them. Near the back of the party, Scanlan sucked in a breath through his teeth and his eyes narrowed, hands curling into fists tightly enough that his knuckles started to turn white from the strain.

“I don’t like these guys,” he said, glaring at the goblins as some of his friends drew weapons. Vex grabbed her bow, notching an arrow and training it down toward the goblins. Two daggers appeared in Vax’s hands, drawn from his belt in an instant and poised to be thrown. Percy pulled a gun from a holster at his side, quickly checking the ammo and spinning the revolver barrel before snapping it into place and readying it to fire.

One of the dwarves, the one with the limp who was unable to keep up with his fellows, was hacked down by one of the goblins. Three of them leaped onto his back as he fell, tearing at his body, his yells echoing through the cave and mixing with the general confusion and chaos created by the alarms.

Vax, Vex, and Percy loosed their shots almost simultaneously upon the goblins below. Tiberius muttered an incantation and fire grew between his hands in a condensed ball, which he then lobbed up and over the fleeing dwarves to come crashing down on the goblins.

A gunshot rang out sharply, the resounding crack muffled by surrounding noise, and an arrow and a dagger both flew through the air at high speeds. The three goblins on top of the dwarf went down, one after the other in quick succession, moments before the fireball impacted and exploded in a blast of arcane energy. The fire reached outward, enveloping the creatures caught in the blast and dissipating immediately afterward. Ten of the goblins fell with barely enough time to let out a shrill shout, an da couple of the dwarves ended up in the fringes of the blast themselves.

Tiberius winced and raised a hand, calling out, “Sorry about that!” His words fell on deaf ears, as the dwarves that were hit fell, and those fleeing paid little mind to everything else going on around them, only having attention for the ramp up and their escape.

“Did you do that?” Scanlan asked, looking up at Tiberius. The fire and hatred burning in his eyes due to the goblins’ appearance faded significantly at the sight of the actual fire.

“Yep,” Tiberius admitted, and the two of them simultaneously turned to stare down at the carnage.

The dwarves they traveled with paused in their step, also staring with wide eyes, and all of them took a step back warily. One of them gestured to the party and down into the quarry, yelling out, “Well go, if you’re gonna help! Go!”

Without needing any more urging, Vox Machina rushed down the ramp and to the quarry floor, weapons at the ready. Percy was the only member to remain behind, opting to use the elevation the ramp granted instead of meeting the creatures at their level. As they moved, more goblins rushed out of the tunnel, into the charred and burnt section of rock before it. They sprinted out, pushing themselves to go full speed from the tunnel, slobbery jaws wide and weapons held tight.

Keyleth growled out a druidic incantation and brought her hands up, fingers curled like claws. Dark red vines burst out from the stone in front of the tunnel entrance, and as Keyleth twisted her hands before her, the vines surged up and lashed out at the nearest goblins, ensnaring them within the vine’s grasp. The plant-like tendrils whipped and moved of their own volition within a wide space in front of the tunnel, lashing out as if they had a sentience of their own.

Heavy footfalls sounded within the tunnel, vibrations running through the rock and shaking the ground beneath the party’s boots. Two large ogres came charging out at the heels of the goblins, fast and reckless. Scanlan barely paid them any attention, eyes still locked on the few remaining goblins. “Fellows,” he said, his normal jovial tones gone in place of a force, strained calm. “I don’t like goblins.”

“Is there anything that you know?” Keyleth asked, looking down at the gnome in concern.

“No,” Scanlan said coolly. “They will all die. Don’t spare any of them.” His words were deliberately spaced, cold and angry and detached, and Grog’s face lit up.

“Copy that,” he said cheerfully, hefting his great axe.

Percy, up on the ramp, put his smaller gun - his Pepperbox - back into its holster at his side and reached for the weapon slung over his shoulder instead. He pulled forth a weapon very similar to the Pepperbox in design, but far larger. Its barrel extended out a couple of feet, the bulky segment at the back an enlarged version of his revolver’s. A brace made of metal, wood, and cloth extended from the back to rest against his shoulder, and a small scope was attached to the top. As he dropped to one knee and steadied the weapon on a thin pair of metal legs protruding from beneath the barrel, Percy grabbed a bullet from a pouch at his side and slotted it into an open section at the top of the boxy back end, pushing against a small lever that slid down the side and loaded the weapon with a click.

Taking a steadying breath, Percy aimed his gun, which he had named Bad News, at one of the two approaching ogres and pulled the trigger. The gun fired with a deafening blast, blue sparks shooting out of the back end of the weapon and splashing against Percy’s coat, a brighter blast coming from the barrel. The force of the shot slammed the gun into Percy’s shoulder and knocked him back a bit, Bad News lifting up off the ground as Percy lurched backward and then steadied himself.

A small, heated projectile rocketed from the gun and slammed into the shoulder of the ogre. Blood spattered against the cave wall behind it as the bullet went straight through, knocking the ogre back a pace with the force of the impact. Blood started to drip from the hole bored through the ogre’s arm, and it paused in its approach. It turned toward the party and roared in pain and fury, slamming its club into the ground at its feet.

Percy laughed, loud, pleased, and almost maniacal as he watched his newest creation operate for the first time, getting it ready for a second shot. The kickback was something he could work on later, but it definitely was powerful and had worked exceptionally well.

Tiberius, moving closer to the creatures leaving the tunnel, ducked instinctively as the blast of Bad News echoed overhead, and he gathered arcane energy within one hand. The small ball held easily in one scaled hand, Tiberius pulled his arm back and threw it as he rose from his crouch. It landed among the goblins caught within Keyleth’s entanglement spell, exploding in a burst of energy. The four goblins, plus an unfortunate one that was unable to run fast enough, disintegrated as the energy washed over them.

Both ogres were caught in the blast as well. The one that had just taken a bullet now had burns across its torso, and the bullet hole had been seared shut and no longer dripped fresh blood. Blood did flow from the ogre’s head, however, as shrapnel from the rocks below was thrown up and cut into flesh. The second ogre had stumbled away from the blast just enough to get away with mild burns and singes, but was no longer unmarred by recent combat.

Before the effects of the first spell dissipated, more energy formed around Tiberius’s outstretched hands, a faint nimbus of arcane light that shimmered around his fingertips. He closed his hands as if to grab something and lifted them high. As he did so, the shot and bloody ogre was lifted into the air, a faint glow around its body matching the glow around Tiberius’s hands. With a grunt of effort, Tiberius threw his hands to the side, and the ogre was hurled through the air and into its companion.

Both ogres collapsed to the ground on the impact, a heavy thud shaking the ground and their loud bellows echoing through the cavern. Once they hit the ground, the whipping red vines reached toward them, grabbing at limbs and cloth and trying to pin the monsters to the stone. Turning to look behind him, Tiberius yelled to Grog, “They’re all yours, buddy!” and pointed to the felled ogres.

As Tiberius cast his spells, Vex stepped up behind him and pointed at one of the ogres. A dark energy formed briefly around her fingertip and then shot over toward the creature, hovering faintly around the ogre to no immediate effect, but Vex smiled. She pulled another arrow from her quiver and notched it, pulling the string back to her cheek as she sighted down the arrow shaft toward one of the fallen ogres.

As the arrow was drawn, crackling arcane energy built up near her hand and then shot down the shaft, gathering at the tip. Vex loosed the arrow and it shot toward the most injured ogre. As the creature was starting to push itself up, fighting against the lashing vines and the wild motions of his fellow, the arrow pierced its chest. It looked down and there was a moment’s pause before the lighting held within the tip burst, crackling energy exploding from the wound and enveloping the ogre.

The ogre reared back on its knees with a horrible, echoing bellow, its body frozen and muscles tight from the electrical surges rocketing through its body. A second later, the ogre’s eyes glazed over and it collapsed forward onto its chest, smoke rising from its unmoving body.

The remaining lightning energy streaked to the other ogre as the first fell, and it jolted back with the shock, dropping its club out of pain and surprise. The lightning dissipated quickly, and the ogre shrugged off the remaining effect as grabbed its club, a heavy breath huffed out of its flared nostrils as it eyed the offending archer with anger. The faint, swirling energy around the dead ogre drifted to the second, coalescing around its form, barely visible and apparently nonthreatening.

The goblins ran closer, and as they did, Grog could better see their faces, their eyes. Unlike most times he’d witnessed a goblin attack, they had no intent to kill and maim and fight burning in their eyes. They were fleeing, not striking except on instinct as anything but a goblin got within reach, and Grog suspected the ogres weren’t the reason for it.

“They’re running,” he blurted out in surprise.

“May I make a request that you kill them anyway,” Scanlan said darkly.

“It’s like playing croquet at this point anyway, so yes,” Grog said emphatically. He let out a bellow of his own to rival the ogres, and his eyes flashed with fury and a need for blood as he charged forward with his great axe at the ready. He rushed two of the goblins with long, heavy strides, and brought his great axe down upon them with all the strength of his rage.

The goblin to his right was cleaved clean through, the axe hitting and passing through the goblin with a speed and strength that made it feel as if it had just gone through air. The goblin let out a quick, high-pitched squeal before its body fell to the ground in two separate pieces, blood and gore and entrails spilling from within and darkening the stone beneath it.

The momentum of the swing carried the great axe around in a wide arc, to the goblin on Grog’s other side. The goblin drew a dagger and snarled at Grog, just as the axe hit it square in its face. Its expression slackened, tongue dangling from a jaw that hung open. Grog pulled his axe back, and the goblin came up with it, body limp and floppy as Grog shook the axe. The goblin fell free after a moment, landing in a heap on the ground, its face caved in to the point of being nearly unrecognizable as blood dribbled from its open skull.

The ogre managed to get its feet underneath it, fighting off the vines with a few growls and grunts. Eyes still focused on the one that had killed its companion and electrocuted it, the ogre charged forward. Its heavy footfalls made the ground vibrate and rumble as it crushed the vines beneath its feet and ran straight at Vex, club at the ready. Her eyes widened and she took a step back, but the creature was in her face quicker than she had expected.

Like the goblins, the ogre’s eyes were wide and wild. Though hardened now with the heat of battle and intent to kill, it looked terrified.

Vax raced up to his sister and pressed his back to hers, the two of them moving in a synchronized and well-practiced motion. Vex spun, her brother moving with her, and she readied another arrow while he struck at the ogre with his daggers.

Bringing both daggers toward the ogre threatening his sister, Vax drove them into its side and it bellowed out in pain. Teeth gritted, he twisted the daggers and pulled with all his strength through the ogre as he turned with Vex, carving out a section of the ogre’s side with a shout of effort. The flesh fell away from the creature, intestines falling out of the ogre’s side and spilling onto the stone.

The ogre looked down, its terror doubled, a desperation to its eyes as it tried to grab at the pieces of itself that had spilled out. As the blood poured from the wound, the color drained from the ogre’s face, and Vax broke away from his sister and kicked the ogre. It toppled over with a thud, lying still and lifeless, and Vex and Vax readied their weapons for another attack in a single, smooth motion.

Keyleth ran in Grog’s wake, getting closer to the opening, more druidic words flowing easily from her lips. She took one, two, three steps and planted her feet solidly beneath her, clenching her hands into fists and throwing them up into the air.

Across the quarry, the entrance of the tunnel the goblins and ogres came from rumbled and shook. The stone that made up the ground shot up in a wall that covered the tunnel entirely, put in place within moments, as small rocks and pebbles cascaded down the wall and clattered quietly to the floor beneath.

Spinning around to face the dwarves that had stopped their advance on the ramp, Keyleth jabbed a finger at the wall of stone and yelled out, “What’s coming? You know what’s coming, tell us!” Her voice shook with adrenaline and the worry of what could have made even ogres flee in terror, and it wasn’t the strong, commanding tone she had hoped for. “We’re about to die, it’s in your best interest to tell us.”

“We don’t know!” one of the dwarves shouted back. “It’s been different things. Strange abominations, it’s hard to describe. They’re put together. Something’s making things down there.”

“What kind of things? From where?” Keyleth demanded. As if to punctuate her questions, there was a loud, echoing impact from the newly erected stone, making it shake. More rocks and debris rained down from the walls around the newly sealed tunnel entrance, and small cracks were faintly visible in the wall.

Percy settled down where he was, loading another shot into his gun and training it on the wall as it cracked and started to crumble. The twins darted to opposite ends of the quarry, taking up positions against the walls, their attention focused on the tunnel entrance. Trinket followed Vex, a comforting presence behind her as she held her bow at the ready. Both of the twins attempted to stay out of view of whatever was coming, using irregularly carved sections of wall and loose rock as cover, hoping for an element of surprise.

Turning away from the dwarves in frustration, Keyleth ran toward a small pillar of stone that rose from the ground, pressing her back against it and peering around to look at the walled tunnel. Tiberius followed her lead, taking up position next to her and looking around the other side of the pillar.

Scanlan scurried forward toward Grog, keeping close to the barbarian, who looked around with wide and wild eyes, chest heaving in anticipation for a continued fight. As Scanlan moved, he pulled an instrument out and started playing, a quick little tune laced with a faint magic to inspire a few of his nearby friends.

Another loud impact made the wall explode outward, stone chunks flying and smashing against the walls and floor of the quarry. A strange, uncomfortably alien creature came forth from the tunnel. Its large, reptilian body resembled that of a naga, but it was swollen and misshapen. It moved unnaturally, lurching and slithering in a way that no creature should. In addition to the humanoid head common among nagas, four more from other nagas extended from its form. Each one seemed to be stitched on, and they moved independently. The heads looked around with horrible hissing sounds coming from the many mouths as the dust settled around it.

Tiberius rolled out of cover, building energy in one hand. He released it toward the naga and it slammed into one of its stitched on necks, making his head snap and rear back with a piercing screech. Growling to himself, Tiberius doubled his efforts and once again the power gathered for a second blast. The condensed energy popped and cracked, unstable in his hand, and Tiberius’s entire arm shook as he lifted his hand and released the second blast toward the naga.

The spell slammed against the naga, burning a sizeable wound into one of its necks, and Tiberius ducked back behind cover as a couple of its heads snapped around to look at him.

The faint dark energy that had jumped between the ogres formed around the naga at a gesture from Vex, and she stepped free of her hiding spot, holding two arrows between her fingers that she fired in quick succession. Her trained hands nocked an arrow, keeping the other curled in her fist, pulled back on the string, and released in a fluid movement while her eyes remained locked on the naga. The first arrow slammed into one of the necks, a couple heads twisting and snapping at the protruding arrow as the second came flying in.

As Vex drew back with the second arrow, she willed the magic in her bowstring to take effect, and the arrow burst into flames as soon as it was released, a fiery torch arcing toward the naga. It slammed into the creature’s body, piercing it between the scales, and the fire licked at it briefly before dying down. The naga hissed in pain, shrugging off the impacts, even as the dark energy around it pressed against the fresh wounds, pulling the arrows in a little deeper and causing the naga to let out another pained screech.

Grog looked at the creature with an eager grin on his face, foam and spittle condensing at the corners of his mouth, and he charged forward toward the naga. He closed the distance between them by half with ease, securing a chain to the end of his great axe as he moved. Muscles flexing with the movement, Grog lifted his great axe above he head and hurled it full force at the naga, the chain trailing along in its wake, the other end held tight in his grasp.

The great axe flew through the air with an audible whoosh as it tumbled end over end with the force of the throw, embedding itself deep in the naga’s torso. Screeching horribly, a few of the heads tried to grab at the axe as blood welled around the injury, and Grog yanked on the chain. It pulled taut for a second, the axe stubbornly suctioned into the body of the naga, before he pulled it free.

The magic within the chain helped bring the great axe directly to him, and Grog reached out and barely caught the handle with the tips of his fingers. He clamped down on it and brought his axe around at the ready, eyes glowing with bloodlust and the thrill of a fight.

Angered and in pain, the naga moved forward with a speed that didn’t match with its size and the awkward movements from before. It almost seemed to blink from one spot to another with how quickly it moved, going from the tunnel entrance, to the middle of the quarry, and around the stone pillar in the center within moments. Keyleth and Tiberius didn’t have a chance to get out of the way as it bore down upon them, the five heads twisting and writhing overhead, its anger focused downward as blood dripped from its wounds.

The five heads struck downward collectively and all but one found their mark. Three of the nagas bit at Keyleth’s arms as she threw them up to protect her face, their fangs piercing and tearing through her flesh with ease. Pain flared up from each wound, sharper and hotter than expected, and Keyleth could feel venom pulsing through her body, the pain and fire spreading rapidly from the bite marks. She doubled over as her entire body was wracked with the burning poison, her breath leaving her in a strained gasp, eyes and teeth clenched tight against the pain.

One of the head sank its teeth into Tiberius’s shoulder, but he smacked the other away with his staff before it could bite down. The poison leaked from the creature’s teeth and into Tiberius’s bloodstream, he could feel it burning and pulsing, but it quickly faded away. As it did, and seeing Keyleth close to collapsing from the pain as her veins became a little darker against her skin, Tiberius narrowed his eyes at the naga and snorted, flames shooting from his nostrils.

Vax darted away from his hiding place, backpedaling further from the naga as he threw his daggers toward it. He put enough of a spin on them that they curved, the cover granted by the stone pillar ignored by the small weapons. One dagger hit one of the heads as it pulled back from keyleth, going through both of the eyes. The head reared back, the screech loud and piercing and echoing through the cavern, and many of the watching dwarves stepped back in surprise. The second dagger slammed into its neck, eliciting no further response, the injury apparently benign in comparison. WIth a small force of will, Vax activated the magic in his belt and his daggers vanished from the naga’s body, appearing at his side once more.

As the naga thrashed and its head whipped around, the stitches holding its head on started to split and fall apart, and a black ichor oozed from the sounds like a dark, viscous blood. Keyleth, standing in front of it with teeth barred, grabbed her staff and slammed it against the ground, a blast of energy exploding outward from the impact. The naga was pushed back by the sheer force, its scaled body scraping against the stone, and its heads reared back from the unseen impact. It skidded about ten feet away, directly next to Percy and the gun trained on it that he was quickly trying to reload.

As soon as the naga was moved away by the blast, Keyleth’s form shifted and changed, and she turned into an eagle. Flapping her wings a couple times to gain air, the poison still pulsing through her body and paining her with each movement, Keyleth lifted off the ground and soared upward, out of the reach of the naga and to safety. “Where are you going?” Tiberius shouted after her, getting no response in return.

Scanlan ran closer to the naga, humming to himself to focus and build the magic that gathered around his hands. Lighting crackled and grew at his fingertips, stretching up his arms in little sparks. Scanlan stopped not too far from the naga, threw his hands out, and loosed the built up energy.

The lightning slammed into the creature, and Scanlan bared his teeth into a grin as he twisted his hands in front of him, controlling the spell that should have finished in a flash and slowing its progress. It lanced up the naga’s back, crackling bolts shooting up its spine and branching off with sharp pops. Each new branch struck at one of the heads, and the sutures broke and came apart, the heads dropping lifelessly to the ground around the creature. The naga screamed as the lightning bolt continued, a shrill, piercing sound that made those nearest flinch back or cover their ears. Percy let go of Bad News and grimaced, slamming his palms over his ears as the creature only feet away from him screeched. Then the lighting bolt hit the naga’s main head and its eyes popped and the body crumpled to the ground, the sound stopping abruptly.

The naga lay on the quarry ground, black ichor leaking from the places the heads had been stitched on. It was unmoving and smoking, a jagged S burned into its side from the lightning bolt, another horrible scar across its already scarred and battered body.

As the quarry quieted again, the echoing cries of the naga fading into nothing, the dwarves nearby slowly lowered their crossbows, many of them staring at the small gnome. Scanlan himself was breathing heavily, eyes wide as he stared down at his own hand, the fainted flickers of remaining arcane energy jumping from the tips of his fingers and dissipating.

One of the dwarves slowly stepped up and awkwardly patted Scanlan on the shoulder. “Well… Well - well done,” the dwarf stammered out.

“Thank you,” Scanlan breathed, looking up, though he still held his hands out in front of him. For all the time that Vox Machina had spent adventuring, Scanlan hadn’t really killed anything before, and nothing this big and terrible. It was a shock, but he was finding it to be a good one. “Just promise me that you’ll tell Pike about this.”

“Okay,” the dwarf said, lifting his eyebrow in confusion.

“Because it was  _ really cool _ ,” Scanlan said. He blew on his hands, dispersing the few lingering bits of magic around his fingertips, and finally lowered them.

The dwarf nodded and glanced from Scanlan to the naga. “That was pretty cool,” he admitted. The rest of the party slowly regrouped from their positions around the quarry. Tiberius checked the bite on his arm, Keyleth flew back down to rejoin everyone, and Percy gathered up Bad News and slung it back over his shoulder. Keyleth morphed back into her normal form and stumbled, grabbing onto Vex for support as the poison continued to pulse through her veins painfully. The pain didn’t seem to be growing or worsening, but it wasn’t waning very quickly either, and standing and moving wasn’t doing great favors for her.

The dwarves nearby looked toward the tunnel, and the one Keyleth had yelled at only moment before pointed to the naga and said, “So, um. That’s the kinda thing that’s been coming out of there.”

“Lovely,” Vex said.

“Thanks for the heads up,” Keyleth grumbled. The dwarf looked at her apologetically and shrugged. The other dwarves moved closer to the party, looking at them and the naga creature in awe, surprise, and in some cases with a bit of bitterness.

“That was great, that was well done! Fantastic! Where’d you learn that?” one dwarf asked Scanlan eagerly as the gnome shook his hands to clear out the remaining energy that prickled at his skin.

“I coulda done better than that!” another dwarf declared gruffly. As soon as the calls and attempts at conversation started, other dwarves joined in, the shock and surprise fading into a brief moment of celebration and excitement at the defeat of the mutated naga beast.

The party, suddenly overwhelmed by eager dwarves, could only stand and listen. No one was able to get a word in themselves before another dwarf was calling for their attention, or someone shouted something out that drowned out attempts at speaking, so no one really tried. Percy pushed through the gathering as politely as he could to reach the rest of the party, trying to brush off the interested dwarves that seemed intrigued by the gun hanging from his shoulder. The chatter continued for a minute before a hush settled on the gathering. A small group of Carvers pushed through way through, with Nostoc among them. He stopped near the party, looking around at each of them.

“Alright. So you’ve certainly proven yourselves in battle,” he said, glancing briefly at the naga.

Tiberius blustered out a few indignant sounds and finally managed to huff, “Of course we did.” Nostoc looked at him, quietly annoyed, and Scanlan put a hand on Tiberius’s arm, shaking his head. “Oh, sorry.”

“I would like to continue this conversation we had back in my office, if you don’t mind,” Nostoc said, as if Tiberius had never spoken. He turned on his heel and walked away, back toward his office without another word.

“Uh, wait, Nostoc,” Keyleth called, voice tight with pain, though she was trying to hide it as well as she could. He didn’t acknowledge her, didn’t speak or even look back, and Keyleth huffed and muttered to herself, “I am still poisoned…”

“Oh. I can help,” Vex offered quickly. Her hands already around Keyleth to help support her, Vex whispered a quick incantation, and her hands glowed with a divine energy that slowly disappeared into Keyleth’s skin. Keyleth felt the poison start to leave her system, the pain fading and her veins lightening again as the magic washed over her. It only took a moment, and Keyleth let out a breath of relief. Even with her bites still bleeding and generally aching, the fire of the poison was gone, and even that was a wonderful change. She pulled away from Vex to stand on her own and smiled at the other half-elf in thanks.

“You can cast?” Scanlan blurted in surprise, and Vex stared at him.

“Of course I can cast! I know a lot of spells,” she said indignantly.

“You can kill?” Vax countered, getting quiet laughter from Percy and Keyleth, as Vex grinned.

Scanlan put his hands up and nodded, saying, “Fair enough.”

The dwarves nearby shuffled awkwardly, watching Nostoc leave and then looking back at the party. One of them gestured to the ramp up, quietly encouraging them to follow Nostoc. “I guess we should go talk to him,” Scanlan said.

“Can’t we go look in the hole a little bit more?” Grog asked, pointing back toward the tunnel where the naga had emerged. His rage had died down to nothing, and though a little bit of foam still clung to the corner of his mouth, his eyes had softened once more.

“No, Grog,” Tiberius said firmly.

“We’re gonna go in the hole in just a minute, Grog,” Vex assured him, patting his arm.

“You promise?” Grog asked.

“You did that last night,” Vax told him with a sly grin. Grog chuckled, a smile spreading across his face as he nodded. “We need to take care of business. Let’s go talk to the man, I’m sure it’s going to lead back to the mines, so…”

“To the hole,” Vex said.

“Yes, to the hole,” Vax allowed. “Everything leads back to the hole.”

Completely ignoring the twins, Percy said, “This is good. We have to find out what that was and we have to see if he’ll finally give us some of that ale.”

“I thought it was wine,” Vex said as they moved through the dwarves and back up the ramp, following Nostoc.

“It was bloody… bloody…” Scanlan said, gesturing vaguely as he tried to come up with the words he wanted.

“It was alcohol,” Percy said dismissively. On that note, the party crested the top of the ramp and made their way to the large building they had met Nostoc in previously, to see what the lord in charge of the mines had in store for them this time around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, your guys' interest in this story is amazing, and thanks for the kudos and comments! And now, three chapters later, the very first episode of Critical Role has been novelized, with a few minor tweaks to make it work. Hopefully the next episode can be started on before too long, and I hope you've enjoyed it so far.


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